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Premiere

U.SA. $195

Canada $4.50

iii

C.wutiiiud,.

M I I

6594B'

Meet Amiga's First Family

A family of powerful peripherals by Tecmar

Add a powerful 1MB multifunction expansion module, 20MB hard disk, 20MB tape
backup, and 2400 baud Hayes® compatible modem. Expand your processing, filing,
and communications with our peripheral family. They're ready for you now. Great
products. Great support. Great prices. Check us out at your nearest Amiga dealer.
The best can be yours!

Multifunction Expansion Module

T-card'" snaps on your Amiga to give you memory up to 1MB,
clock/calendar with standby battery, serial port, parallel or SASI
port, buffered bus expansion port, and built-in power supply.
Power peripherals don't get any better. T-card is awesome!

20MB Hard Disk

T-disk™ sits on your Amiga taking no valuable desk space to
provide almost unlimited file capacity. Inside its sleek package,
T-disk houses a 3V4 inch hard disk with controller. A shielded'
cable connects T-disk to T-card's SASI port. Lights show you the
disk's power, select, and write status. T-disk is simple, powerful,
and best of all — low cost.

20MB Tape Backup

When you move beyond floppies to Tecmar's powerful 20MB T-
disk, you'll want a fast, reliable tape backup system. T-tape"
backs up T-disk's 20MB's in just a few minutes. And, if power loss
or operator error accidently erases your most treasured data,
you get selective file restoration: T-tape's handsome package
interlocks with T-disk. Lights show track number and tape
direction plus read, write, door, and power status. T-tape is truly
state-of-the-art with a unique single reel cartridge, exceptional
performance, and a very low price.

2400 Baud Modem

T-modem™ brings fast and simple communications to your
Amiga. Hayes compatibility with selectable 300, 1200 and 2400
baud rates makes the world a little smaller and a lot easier to talk
to. T-modem provides tone decoding, off-hook detection, and
interface 1o Amiga's audio circuits. The high-styled package
interlocks with T-disk and T-tape to make a single unit.

Hayes is a registered trademark o! Hayes Microcomputer Products Amiga is a trademark of
Commodore/Amiga, Inc T-disk. T-lape. and T-modein are trademarks of Tecmar, Inc '1985
Tecmar. Inc All rights reserved

Call us at 216/349-1009 for the location of the dealer nearest you.

■ iGcm3,r

THE POWER BEHIND THE PC

6225 Cochran Road Solon, Ohio 44139

Circle 5 on Reader Setvice card.

AMIGA

Volume 1, Number 1, Premiere 1985

Features

14 A First Look at the Amiga

By Margaret Morabito

Margaret Morabito answers the ques-
lion "Jusl what is an Amiga, anyway?" in

this comprehensive article that outlines
the many features of the Amiga, giving
you an overview of this remarkable
new computer,

36 What If. . .

By Guy Wright

The Amiga is going to open new
worlds of computer wonder — it is just a
matter of time before the Amiga turns
"what if" into "what is."

44 Amazing Graphics

Sit back, strap yourself in and prepare to
be dazzled! This graphics spread will show
vou jnsi some of the Amiga's graphics
capabilities. It's a visual banquet that will
leave vou craving for more.

2 Premiere 19S5

■ Articles

5 b Stimulating Simulations:

Electronic Arts Gets Involved
with the Amiga

By Jim Forbes

A look inside Electronic Arts, a
renowned software developer with
plenty of creative talent and vision,
plus a chat with companv president
Trip Hawkins.

Sounds Like

By Guy Wright

This article will play for you the open-
ing bars of an Amiga symphony that
should bring down the house.

A Peek at the 68000
By Brian Epstein

This article takes a look at the heart of
the Amiga computer — the Motorola
68000 chip,

0 1 The Amiga as a Teaching Tool

By Guy Wright

The Amiga will enhance and enliven
the learning process for a new genera-
tion of students — and not just in the
classroom.

Avision

PublishSf Stephen Twombly '<
the gerisis of AmigaWbrld. JK

Zeitgeist '

Hello, tlw*HSjiayp«ftlitor speaklrgRSBEE

thoughts on a new world of computing.

Amiga Solutions

AmigaWbrUCs resident doubting Thomas
gets his first look at the new machine.

Departments

Digital Canvas

Amiga artist jack Haeger shows what
can be done with an Amiga, a mouse
and a lot of creative talent.

Help Key

Questions about the Amiga, answered
by the experts.

List of Software

Software packages available (and some
to be released soon) for the Amiga.

Coming Next Issue

AmigaWorld 3

AMIGA

Volume 1, Number 1, Premiere 1985

Publisher
Stephen Twombly

Editor-in-Chief
Guy Wright

Managing Editor
Shawn Lafiamme

Assistant Editor

Vinoy Laugh ner

Associate Editor

Swain Pratt

Contributing Editors

Marilyn Annucci, Harold Bjornsen,

Dennis Brisson, Margaret Morabito,

Susan Tanona

Advertising Sales Manager

Stephen Robbins
Sales Representative
Ken Blakeman
Ad Coordinator
Heather Paquette
1-800-441-4403
Marketing Coordinator
Wendie Haines
West Coast Sales
Giorgio Saluti, manager
1415-328-3470
1060 Marsh Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025

BE
Cover

Design: Glenn A. Suokko
Photography: Edjudice

Design < ionsultant: Christine Di \trempes
Separation: Ultra Scan
Priming: Brimtn Printing

4 Premiere 1985

Chairman
James S. Povec

President

Debra Wetherbee

Vice-President/Finance

Roger Murphy

Assistant General Manager

Matt Smith

Assistant To VP/Finance

Dominique Smith

Executive Creative Director

Christine Destrempes

Director of Circulation

William P. Howard

Circulation Manager

Frank S. Smith

Direct & Newsstand Sales Manager

Raino Wirein

800-343-0728

Director of Credit Sales & Collections

William M. Boyer

Art Director
Glenn A. Suokko
Editorial Design
Glenn A. Suokko
Production/Advertising Supervisor
Rosalyn Scribner
Graphic Design Assistants
Anne Dillon, Karla Whitney

Graphic Services Manager
Dennis Christensen
Film Preparation Supervisor
Robert M. Villeneuve
Typesetting Supervisor
Linda P. Canale

Manufacturing Manager
Susan Gross

AmigaWorld (ISSN 0883-2390) is an independent
journal not connected with Commodore Business
Machines, Inc. AmigaWbrld is published bimonthly
by C\V Communications/Peterborough, Inc., 80

Pine St., Peterborough. Ml 03458. U.S. subscription
rale is SI 9.97. one year. Canada and Mexico S22.97,
one year. U.S. funds drawn on U.S. bank only.
Foreign Surface 539.97. Foreign Air Mail S74.97.
U.S. funds drawn on U.S. bank. Second class postage
pending al Peterborough, NH. and at additional
mailing offices. Phone: 603-924-9471. Entire con-
tents copyright 1985 by CVV Communications/Pe-
terborough. Inc. No part of this publication may
be printed or otherwise reproduced without written
permission from tin- publisher. Postmaster: Send ad-
dress changes to AmigaWorld. Subscription Seniles.
PO Box 954, Famtingdalc, NY 1 17:5"). Nationally dis-
tributed bv International Circulation Distributors.
AmigaWorld makes every effort to assure the accuracy
of articles, listings and circuits published in the mag-
azine. AmigaWorld assumes no responsibility for dam-
ages due to errors or omissions.

AmigaWorld is a member ol the C\V Comutuuica-
lions/I nc. group, the world's largest publisher of
computer-related information. The group pub-
lishes 57 computer publications in more than 20
major countries. Nine million people read one or
more of the group's publications each month. Mem-
bers of the group include: Argentina's Computer-
world/Argentina; Asia's The Asian Computerworld:
Australia's Computerworld Australia. Australian 1'C.
World. Macworld and Directories; Bra/i I' s Da tti.Xnes an d
MicroMundo: China's Chirm Computerworld; Den-
mark's CompulerworlaVDanmark. PC World and HI'S
(Commodore); Finland's Mikrtr, France's 1/ Monde
Informatiqtte, Golden (Apple). OPC (IBM) and Distrib-
utique; Genua nv's Cotnputeneoche, Microcompttterweti,
PC Welt, SaftwareMarkt, CAY Edition/Seminar. Computer
Business, RUN and Apple's; Italy's Computerworld Italia
and PC Magazinr. Japan's Cvmputerworld japan; Mex-
ico's Computerworld/Mexico and CompuMundo; The
Netlterlatid's CompuUrWjrld Benelux and I'C World
Benelux: Norway's Computerworld Norge, PC World and
RUX (Commodore); Saudi Arabia's Saudi Comput-
erworld; Spain's CompulenenrldJEspaha. Miirosistemas/
I'C. World and Commodore World; Sweden's
ComputerSweden, Mikrmtntorn. and Svenska PC; the
UK's Computer Management. Computer News, PC Bust-
ness World and Computer Business Europe: the U.S.'
AmigaWorld, Computeru'orld. Focus Publications., HOT
CoCa, inCider. InfoWorld. Mac World. Micro Mw 'krlworld.
On Communications. PC World, RUN, 73 Magazine. SO
Micro: Venezuela's Computerworld Venezuela.

Manuscripts: Contributions in the form ol manu-
scripts with drawings and/or photographs are wel-
come and will be considered for possible
publication. AmigaWinld assumes no responsibility
for loss or damage to any material. Please enclose
a self-addressed, stamped envelope with each sub-
mission. Payment for the use of any unsolicited
material will be made upon acceptance. All contri-
butions and editorial correspondence (typed and
double-spaced, please) should be- directed to
AmigaWorld Editorial Offices. 80 Pine Street. Peter-
borough, NH 03458; telephone: 603-924-9471. Ad-
vertising Inquiries should be directed to
Advertising Offices. CVV Communications/Peter-
borough, Inc.. Klin Street, Peterborough. Nil 03458;
telephone: 800-441-4403. Subscription problems or
address changes: Call 1-800-344-0015 ot write to
AmigaWorld. Subscription Department. PO Box 868,
Farmingdaie, NY 1 I 7:57, Problems with advertisers:
Send a description of the problem and your current
address to: AmigaWorld, Kim Street. Peterborough.
Nl! 03458. ATTN.: Rita H. Rivard, Customer Service
Manager, or call I -81)0-44 1-4403.

Circle 3 on Reader Service card.

Amiga knocked
our socks off.

Security is important in our business. So writ
ing the tutorial program for the new Commodore
Amiga was a special challenge.

We couldn't tell anyone about
Amiga graphics. Amiga stereo
sound. Amiga power.
Amiga speed,

We couldn't even say
the word Amiga to our
closest friends.

Now we can officially

welcome Amiga. And greet the readers of
AmigaWorld.The only remaining secret concerns
the new software we're about to introduce for
Amiga. Mindscape's Keyboard Cadet™ and
The Halley Project™ are coming soon.
So hold on to your socks.
•^ And your hat,

Mindscape

ftware that challenges the J. mind.

Mindscape, Inc., 3444 Dundee Rd., North brook, IL 60062

A message from a leading software publisher.

Why Electronic Arts

; Committed to the Amiga.

In our first two years, Electronic Arts has emerged as a leader of
the home software business. We have won the most product quality
. awards— over 60. We have placed the most Billboard Top 20
titles— 12. We have also been consistently profitable in an industry
beset by losses and disappointments.

Why, then, is Electronic Arts banking its hard won gains on an
unproven new computer like the Amiga?

The Vision of Electronic Arts.

We believe that one day soon the home computer will be as important
as radio, stereo and television are today.

These electronic marvels are significant because they bring faraway
places and experiences right into your home. Today, from your living
room you can watch a championship basketball game, see Christopher
Columbus sail to the New World, or watch a futuristic spaceship
battle.

The computer promises to let you do much more. Because it is
interactive you get to participate. For example, you can play in that
basketball game instead of just watching. You ran actually be Christopher
Columbus and feel firsthand what he felt when he sighted the New
World. And you can step inside the cockpit of your own spaceship.

But so far, the computers promise has beer, hard to see. Software

has been severely limited by the abstract, blocky shapes and rinky-
dink sound reproduction of most home computers. Only a handful
of pioneers have been able to appreciate the possibilities. But then,
popular opinion once held that television was only useful for
civil defense communications.

A Promise of Artistry.

The Amiga is advancing our medium on all fronts. For the first time,
a personal computer is providing the visual and aural quality our
sophisticated eyes and ears demand. Compared to the Amiga, using
some other home computers is like watching black and white television
with the sound turned off.

The first Amiga software products from Electronic Arts are near
completion. We suspect you'll be hearing a lot about them. Some
of them are games like you've never seen before, that get more out
of a computer than other games ever have. Others are harder to
categorize, and we like that.

For the first time, software developers
have the tools they need to fulfill the
promise of home computing.

Two years ago, we said, "We See
Farther' Now Farther is here.

ELECTRONIC ARTS'"

Dr J and Larry Bird Go One-On-One

The number one software sports game
of all rime. Shoot as accurately as Larry

Bird, slam dunk like the Doctor, while

you're cheered on by the victory chants

of the Boston Garden crowd.

Skyfox"1

Get in the spaceship arid fly Out your

window or on your radar screen you

have but split-seconds to appreciate the

fierce beauty of enemy jets and tanks.

Seven Cities of Gold '"
Be Christopher Columbus and discover

the New World. Leant history and
Kcography or generate your own random

new worlds to explore.

Archon

A new kind of computerized board game,

like chess with wizards and dragons for

pieces. Rut when (MW lands on another,

they have to fight a white-knuckled

action battle.

DELUXE VIDEO

CONSTRUCTION SET

Deluxe Video Construction Set*"

Be your own video director for business

presentations or just for fun. Set up

special effects^ animated computer

graphics, sound effects and rides — even

record them to videotape for use

with a VCR

Arcticfcx™

Vbu Command the advanced and deadly

tank of the future - the Arctkfox. A

first person tank combat game with all

the stunning graphics and sound of the

ben 3-D simulations,

Return to Adaruis1"

Play Indiana Cousieau. oceanic hero, in

this three dimensional simulation under

the seven seas.

Marble Madness™
Bar the first time, the home version of

a coin-op aTcade game is just as good

as. the original. Same graphics. Same

sound And you can play it in your

bathrobe.

For detail* about availability see yuur Amiga uftware dealer nr call us at |4i5| 572-ARTS. Rir a pjoJuct catalog send $.50 and a stamped. setf-addreswd envelope to; Electronic Arts. Amtpi Catalog Offer. 17SS Campus
Drive. San M«eo. CA 94403 Amiga is a Trademark of Commodate Business Machines Skytox. Seven Cities of Cold. Delude Video Construction Set, Aretirio*. Return to Atlantis and Electronic Arts ate trademarks
of Electronic Am Marble Madness is a trademark of Atari Games, fnc

Circle 2 on Header Service card.

By Steve Twombly

In December of 1984, I had
my first look at an Amiga proto-
type at the company's headquar-
ters in Los Gatos, CA. Although
the Amiga was still unfinished, 1
was given a demonstration of its
sound and graphics capabilities.
I was overwhelmed. When I
learned what features were yet
to come for business users and
what this new machine would
retail for, I was convinced it
would be the most advanced mi-
crocomputer to come on the
market in 1985 and 1986.

The developers at Amiga had
been working on this new micro
for more than two years before
I saw the prototype. They had
been propelled by a vision that
a supermicro could be built and
delivered in high volume at an
unprecedented low price. They
wanted to create a supermicro
that would fully exploit the ca-
pabilities of Motorola's 68000
microprocessor and stim-
ulate the consumer market-
place. The Amiga was designed
to create new markets and
reach new consumers.

For me, the Amiga vision
became a compelling urge to
bring to market a dedicated
publication that would feature
this astounding computer. Im-
mediately, a small team of us
began to conceive a new maga-
zine to cover the Amiga. We
were all of one mind: Because
the Amiga is a unique machine,
it needs an equally unique mag-
azine. AmigaW'orltl lives up to
that billing.

Software developers, too,
were impressed with the new
Amiga. They saw the opportu-
nity to develop on the Amiga
the most advanced and exciting
software imaginable. Some of
their products are now available
and many are yet to come, but
their enthusiasm is typical of
that found at Amiga headquar-
ters. Commodore and here at
CW/Peterborough.

The new Amiga will become a
necessity in a variety of markets.
It will be a powerhouse for run-
ing business applications due to
its incredible speed, easily ex-
pandable memory and multi-
tasking capability. As a creativ-

ity and produciivity tool, die
Amiga is unsurpassed and will be
frequently used in performing
spreadsheet, database, graphics
and word processing applications.
The development of integrated
and "expert" software programs
will reach new horizons with the
Amiga. The Amiga's range of ca-
pabilities is si i broad thai il will
become a critical addition lo spe-
cialized professions, such as archi-
tecture, advertising. CAD
(computer-aided desigiO. market-
ing, film and video, music and
many more.

Both the professional and
home user will find il ea-^ in
create software that takes full
advantage of Amiga's amazing
speed, graphics, animation and
sound. When you add this to
the multi-tasking DOS and user
interface with overlapping win-
dows, the variable color and
screen resolutions, icons ;uid
pop-down menus, you have a
computer with programming ca-
pabilities unlike an) other.

The Amiga was designed with
the future in mind, lis philoso-
phy is expandability with conti-
nuity. The microprocessor can
be upgraded, as can the custom
( hips. I he Amiga's memon is
expandable without affecting its
design. Its open architecture
and multitasking DOS will
open new dimensions in third-

<V Premiere 1985

party development of both pe-
ripherals and software. As a re-
sult, the Amiga will grow over
the next five years without los-
ing software and peripheral
compatibility, and users need
not fear obsolescence.

Amiga makes real what had
previously been only a vision in
the microcomputing world, lie-
fore the Amiga, such power,
speed, sound, color and anima-
tion capabilities weren't com-
mercially available for under
$20,000. Now, everyone will
have an opportunity «> experi-
ence this computing break-
through. We at AmigaWorid
believe this opportunity will
provide a great deal of excite-
ment for many years lo conn-.
As you look through and read
the pages of AmigaWorid, 1 ihiitk
you'll see what I mean.

As we explore the Amiga, re-
member i Inn this first issue pro-
vides only a glimpse of what is
to come. The future is here.

AmigaWrrld 9

By Guy Wright

AmigaWorld. Whew! It has
been quite an effort putting to-
gether a new magazine for a new
machine that wasn't even finished
at the time we went to press. I he
official word that we were defi-
nitely doing a magazine didn't
come through until the beginning
of May (roughly a month after the
time we should have had all the
articles typeset and ready to send
to the printer). That meant a lot
of scrambling around, a lot of dig-
ging, a lot of weekends, late
nights, last-minute plane nips to
California, New York, Pennsylva-
nia. Illinois and enough phone
calls to give us all cauliflower ears.

In main ways, starting up a
magazine is pretty close to what
you might imagine it would be.
The frantic pace, the cups of
cold coffee, the stories coming
in late, the last-minute deci-
sions, the telephone reports
from the coast and the thou-
sands of details that have to be
tended to. Hut I am certain you
would be more than a bit sur-
prised if vim came up here, to
the hills of southwestern New
Hampshire, and saw the offices
and met the people behind
AmigaWorid.

There is no steel and glass.
no 40-story office building with
hundreds of frenetic reporters
and grumpy editors. No copy-
boys dashing around with last-
minute stories. There aren't
dozens of clacking typewriters

or smoke-filled r ns, and the

phones only ring W percent of
the time. Instead, we have a
converted New England farm-
house with wooden floors.
There's a handful of editors and

a few writers, many of whom
work at home and send in their
stories via modems or word
processors and printers. It's a
curious mixture of country and
technology.

But the key to AmigaWorld is
the people who did all the run-
ning around, word processing,
telephoning, designing, editing,
typesetting, organizing and so
on. There are also quite a num-
ber of people not on the
AmigaWorld staff who helped
make this first issue possible.
The people at Commodore-
Amiga who let us come and see
the machine before it was ready,
who answered our questions,
who did the interviews when
they didn't really have time to
spare, who stayed up late wait-
ing for calls or got up extra
early because of the three-hour
time-zone difference between
California and New Hampshire,
who answered our questions,
who helped get the right screen
shots, who helped us get in
touch with the right people,
who photocopied stacks of ma-
terial and then did it again
when something was changed,
and who answered still more
questions.

We asked a lot of questions.
A lot of questions. We hope we
asked about the things you are
interested in. (But if we haven't,
then you can always write to us
and we'll try and get the kinds
of answers you're seeking.)
There are still thousands of
questions that we haven't asked
yet and thousands of pages of
information yet to be printed.

But our whole job wasn't and
isn't just asking questions. We

have to take those questions
and turn them into articles that
make sense. Distill the informa-
tion and transform it into some-
thing meaningful. Our goal is to
provide you with useful, enter-
taining, understandable infor-
mation and ideas. Articles that
reveal the inner workings of the
Amiga from Commodore with-
out a confusing array of techno-
talk. Just as you shouldn't have
to know how to rebuild a car-
buretor to drive a car, you
shouldn't need a degree in com-
puter science or mathematics to
use the power and versatility of
the computer.

At the same time, we know
that you are probably above av-
erage in intelligence (after all.
you're reading this magazine,
aren't you?) and don't need to
be spoonfed. Computers are
not simple machines, hut nei-
ther are they incomprehensible,
And while the focus of Amiga-
World is (oddly enough) the
Amiga computer, we'll be going
far beyond dissecting the
machine.

We will explore the ways an
Amiga can be used for enhanc-
ing life; for increasing produc-
tivity in business, school and
home; for bringing out creativ-
ity in music, graphics and even
business; for saving you money
and time; for amusement; for
education; for communication;
and for the thousands of things
no one has thought of yet. 1 he-
things that you will be thinking
about.

That's the exciting thing
about the Amiga computer. It is

Illustration by Jack Haeger

Ki Premiere 1985

a catalyst for the future of com-
puting. A tool that will bring us
into the next age. And the best
ideas are going to come from
the people who own and use
the computer every day. That is
the challenge I put to you now.
Do something with your Amiga
that is the very best ever done.
Whatever it is. We are going to
be putting out the best maga-
zine we can, to let you know
what others are doing with their
Amigas and to let others know
what you are doing with yours.
Do vour best, because now
there is a machine that can
match vour imagination.

This first issue of AmigaWorld
will look into the future a little.
Rather [ban detailing the var-
ious commands and specifics,
we'll sit back and let the Amiga
show off a little. We will focus
on its capabilities and what they
will mean to you. We'll loll you
a bit about its power and versa-
tility. But, with any new project,
there will be last-minute
changes and alterations, so let
me apologize right now for any
inaccuracies in this first issue.

The things we will show you
and tell you about the Amiga
will convince even the most ada-
mant cynic that the Amiga com-
puter is the next wave, and
we're all bound to get a little
wet. There is no other com-
puter 1 would rather be in-
volved with and no other
magazine. Welcome to
AmigaWorld.

I would also like to give a
special thanks to the entire staff
of RUN magazine for their pa-
tience and invaluable assistance.

AmigaWorld II

i aximiUian'", from Tardis Software, is a
breakthrough in software synergy, providing
the standard set of business functions integrated
but not hardwired together.

Our standard modules, spreadsheet with
data base, word processor, graphics, and com-
munications solve your day-to-day business
problems.

But power users need features that compli-
cate integrated packages, or limit them if left
out.

Maximillian provides the unprecedented
ability to upgrade to our Maxi+ modules in-
dependently, to provide a custom price/per-
formance mix to exactly suit your needs.

And, using MaxiShare", Maximillian can do
what no other package does: Share data in
real-time across the office or across the country!

Each module can be used stand-alone, but
when two or more are used together MaxiNet"
is active.

The same MaxiNet'" also handles communi-
cation with another Maximillian to implement
MaxiShare:"

EACH IS A REPLACEABLE PLUG-IN SOFTWARE MODULE.

MaxiCalc™ MaxiWord™ MaxiGraph™ MaxiTerm1

Maiirmllian, MamCalc. MaxiWord, MaxiGraph and MaxiTerm are trademarks of Tardis Sohware

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Maximillian Standard Modules:

MaxiCalc '" — 256 col by 256 rows, mouse or
keyboard, simple data base.

MaxiWord" — memory based, single font,
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Circle 18 on Reader Service card.

A First Look at the Amiga

B\ Margaret Morabito

The Custom graphics
chip and the custom ani-
mation chip make possi-
ble the Amiga's superior
graphics output, which
\vu can fully utilize on a
home television set as
welt as on an RGB mon-
itor. Also available are
multidimensional dis-
play'; selection of up to
4,096 colors and quality
resolution equivalent to
a fine color television.

The Amiga computer from Commodore-Amiga. Inc.,
a subsidiary of Commodore International, Kid., is the
first in a new line of personal/business computers, tak-
ing a giant leap forward in single-station multi-tasking,
computer graphics and sound.

Based on the Motorola (5801(1) microprocessor, the
Amiga is different from oilier computers using this proces-
sor because its intricate network of built-in hardware fea-
tures lets the 08000 run at full .speed most of the time.
Three custom chips, one of which contains a co-processor,
do much of the work, handling most of the burden of
implementing the Amiga's graphics and sound features, as
well as input/output operations. These custom chips allow
the Amiga to outperform any other multi-tasking personal
computer on the market today.

Another difference between the Amiga and other
08000 machines is that it can address eight megabytes
of memory. Additionally, the Amiga is a completely
open system. Its internal architecture is designed to
accommodate upgrades and enhancements already
being developed for powerful graphics-oriented
machines of the future.

The custom graphics chip and the custom animation
chip make possible the Amiga's superior graphics out-
put, which you can fully utilize on a home television set
as well as on an RGB monitor. Also available are multi-
dimensional displays, selection of up to 4,096 colors
and quality resolution equivalent to a fine color televi-
sion. For business and educational applications, you
can combine either 40- or 80-co!umn text displays with
the graphics modes to create extraordinary visual
displays.

The Sound/Peripherals chip can duplicate complex
sounds on each of four separate sound channels. By
combining the power of this chip with the dual stereo
sound-output ports, the Amiga can easily match the

quality of commercial synthesizers. Furthermore, there
are 11 ports to accommodate anv peripherals you may-
want to connect to this computes.

Multi-Peripheral Machine

At release lime, the Amiga will already have sophisti-
cated peripherals with which to tap its extraordinary
potential. One of the more elegant is a "frame grab-
ber," which can take an image from videotape, digitize
it and make it available for storage on the Amiga. A
digitized picture can, for example, be embellished with
Amiga graphics and sound, animated and stored for
future use. A digitizer tablet will also be available.

A MIDI interface will be provided along with musical
keyboards to take advantage of this supennicro's amaz-
ing sound capabilities. Other peripherals include a
(Jen-lock interface, a l'200-baud Hayes-compatible
modem from Amiga and third-party sources, a hard
disk with tape backup, a two-megabyte multifunction
card and a 2400-baud modem. These are just a few
already prepared. You will discover, however, that the
Amiga warrants peripherals and applications that have
yet to be developed.

The Amiga comes with an 89-key detached keyboard
and a system box that houses the internal hardware and
built-in disk drive. It has 256K of internal RAM and
192K of ROM. This is enough memory lor many appli-
cations, but for those requiring more memory, it's easy
to clip a 256K RAM pack to the front of the system
unit, thus boosting the memory to a full 512K.

Compared to most personal computers on the mar-
ket today, the Amiga's 256K of RAM is far more versa-
tile because, thanks to the three custom chips, less of it
is occupied with chores for system operation and lan-
guage support.

As for data storage, the Amiga comes with a built-in
S&inch disk drive that accommodates double-sided,
double-density disks with a capacity of 880K. You're not
limited to just 880K, however. The machine can accom-
modate three additional disk drives, either :\'/r or '>/,-

/-/ Premiere 19X5

Photography by F.d judice

! ■

H'Hr..

inch. There will be a 20-megabyte hard disk drive avail-
able for it in the fall.

The Amiga incorporates truly superior graphics,
which, however, will be used in applications far differ-
ent from the typical entertainment field. They will pro-
vide a tool For serious graphics applications in both the
business and consumer markets. The versatility of the
graphics will also attract engineers, CAD/CAK users,
architects, professional creative artists and anyone
requiring fast and efficient graphic design capabilities.

Custom Graphics Chip

There are two basic kinds of screen displays on the
Amiga: playficlds and sprites. A playfield is the back-
drop upon which sprites may be displayed, or with
which they can interact. There are two playfield screens
in the Amiga, each of which can contain its own set of
user-defined graphics objects and its own coloring. The
two playfields can appear together on one screen, one
in front of the other, and you can also scroll (hem hori-
zontally and vertically.

The graphics capabilities

of the Amiga, com-
pounded with its multi-
tasking windowing envi-
ronment and its ability
to transform rum-comput-
erized photos and film
clips into digitized color
screens, make it a busi-
ness machine like no
other.

Sections of a playfield can be set aside and used as
separate objects. These playfield objects can interact
with sprites and you can manipulate them to create the
effect of animation, all through the use of a hardware
device called the "blitter." (Playfield animation will be
discussed later in this article.)

The playfield display has two modes of operation:
low and high resolution. The Low-resolution mode dis
plays 320 dots (pixels) across the screen by 200 pixels
vertically and provides a clear 40-column text display.
This accommodates multicolored images.

An "Interlaced" mode provides twice the vertical dis-
play: 320 X 400 pixels. Interlacing is achieved by hav
ing the monitor's scanning mechanism perform two
screen scans per cycle.

You can define a special "color palette," holding 32
different colors chosen from 4,096 colors available— the
greatest variety of color selection offered as a standard
feature in a personal computer. You can create highly
detailed multicolored pictures using these two low-reso-
lution modes, because you can tint each individual
pixel with any one of your chosen 32 colors.

Then there is a special Hold and Modify mode,
which lets you control the color even more intricately
by using all 4,096 colors simultaneously on a television
screen or an RGB monitor. This is all accomplished by
barely utilizing the 08000 microprocessor.
High Resolution

The second mode of playfield operation. High Reso-
lution, has two separate displays. It will give you 640
pixels across the screen, with each pixel being any one
of 16 colors selected from your color palette. This dis
play, however, can be achieved only on a high-resolu-
tion monochrome or RGB color monitor, not on a
television set. There are 200 lines per screen in this
mode, which is the one used within the Amiga user
interface called Workbench. You can create graphs and
charts with textual enhancements from this mode.

The second high-resolution display is an interlaced
display that can handle 640 pixels horizontally and 400
vertically. Using this mode, up to 16 colors can be seen
simultaneously.

Text can be intermixed on both low- or high-resolu-
tion displays. In low resolution, you can use 40 col-
umns of text, with each character treated as a special
graphics element and defined as a series of pixels in an
8x8 grid.

In High-resolution mode, you can use 80 columns of
text characters per line. You can easily mix multicol-
ored graphics with text on the same screen, since text is
simply considered to be another set of special graphics.
You can also create customized text fonts and have
complete control over their coloring.

Amiga's "blitter" lets you place any kind of graphics
element anywhere on the screen, making possible sub-
scripts, superscripts, underlining, proportional spacing
and other features.
Sprites

The second major display mode on the Amiga is
Sprite mode. A sprite is a movable graphics object that
is totally independent of the playfields and can be dis-
played anywhere on the screen, since it is not affected
by other screen-display features. The Amiga offers eight
programmable Sprite processors, but you're not limited
to eight sprites per screen, as you can reuse sprites on
the same screen.

A sprite can be up to 16 pixels wide, with unlimited
height, so a sprite the height of the screen would be
200 pixels tall. If you wanted to make one even taller
than the screen, you could. The only limitation is the
amount of memory available for sprite-data storage.

16 Premiere 1985

Each pixel of a sprite can have any of four colors,
including transparency. There is also a special mode in

which you can attach two sprites, thus increasing the
number of possible colors to sixteen. You can display
both sprites and play-field objects simultaneously on a
playfield.

Custom Animation Chip

The Amiga has two animation systems. The first was
already mentioned in relation to the blitter. The blitter
is a hardware device that controls Playfield animation
(or Frame Buffer animation), and it can animate low-
resolution screen objects created in any of the two
playfields.

Playfield animation is a technique through which you
modify sections of a playfield by drawing an image,
then erasing and redrawing it again onto the same
background. The background displays are constantly
being saved into a memory buffer and redrawn onto
the background. This creates the effect of animation, as
an image is very quickly replaced in a different location
upon the same background. The blitter moves the
screen-display data around so quickly that you don't
notice all of the steps being executed.

In order to successfully perform this animation, the
Amiga has a feature called "double buffering," which
utilizes two separate memory spaces when performing
background save-and-restore. While one section of
memory is being displayed, the other is being modified
in the second memory section. This totally assures that
the viewer will never see a display being reconstructed
on the screen.

The Playfield Animator allows you to create and
move several dozen low-resolution screen objects. It
also provides the hardware support for line-drawing
and area-fill functions. Lines can be drawn at one mil-
lion pixels per second — that's incredibly fast.

Sixteen colors per object are available. All objects in
a playfield have user-specified priorities, which means
that one playfield can be placed in front of or behind
another. Both are independently scrollable, horizontally
and vertically. Due to the custom graphics and anima-
tion chips, the Amiga accomplishes all of this without
slowing down the 68000 microprocessor.

Playfield animation is a bit slower than sprite anima-
tion, but it is much more versatile in that the graphics
objects are neither limited by size nor by the number
of colors available per object.

The second animation system on the Amiga handles
Sprite graphics. Sprites have several attributes, includ-
ing that of priority overlay, like the playfields. Vim can
i lake some sprites in. ve in from ol Others, while still
< thei s move in I In- far bat kground, with up to seven
layers possible. With the transparency feature, you can
also make sprites with see-through components.

Both animation systems have a hardware collision-
detection feature. The screen can detect collisions
between sprites, between sprites and playfield objects
and between the two playfields themselves. What is this
good for? These collision-detection features come in
handy for use in games, for example, to determine

Illustration by Island Graphics

whether a missile has struck its target. You can also use
it to prevent a moving object from going beyond its
prescribed on-screen boundaries.

Collision detection is also used in playfield anima-
tion. It is the process by which chunks of a playfield
can be defined as individual objects and can be ani-
mated by the blitter.

Vivid Versatility

The graphics abilities of the Amiga will be appreci-
ated by those of you who want to make video scenes or
computerized images of real life. You can use the
Amiga with VCIRs and color digitizers. You could, for
example, "take a picture" of any individual frame from
a section of tape, digitize the image on the Amiga and
store it for later use on disk. Or, you can take that same
digitized image, color it with a paint program, overlay
graphics and titles, use an animation program to ani-
mate the whole thing and then capture the final prod-
uct on slides, hard copy or videotape. This is just the
tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Amiga's busi-
ness and educational applications.

Words are really not adequate to convey an under-
standing of the graphics and animation features of the
Amiga. It was only through seeing graphics demonstra-
tions given on an Amiga that I could appreciate the
unique animation available through hardware control.

The graphics-animation demo presented a cartoon-
like portrayal of a street scene, with various figures and i

The third custom chip
within the Amiga han-
dles the sound capabili-
ties, as well as the disk
controller and other in-
put/output functions.
Again, this frees the
68000 chip for more
important functions.

AmigdWbrld 17

Multiple Windows illustrating icons. Taken from a preliminary
version of the user interface, presented to show the capability
of the system.

creatures strolling hack and forth in front of and
behind the landscape. One creature was a strolling
robot, whose partially transparent head allowed the
viewer to see the objects passing behind it.

Within the same scene, there was constant movement,
with images moving alongside others, yet avoiding colli-
sion. Multi-tasking, often associated with business appli-
cations using text displays, was amply demonstrated in
this lively graphics demo, for each linage can be consid-
ered a separate task thai performs its own functions.

The graphics systems on the Amiga are handled
through the use of "pull-down" screens. A palette, con-
taining the color choices available and the most
recently used operations, can be pulled down onto the
screen at any time. This allows you to select colors and
features directly from the palette, rather than con-
stantly having to go back to a main menu.

The two graphics chips handle all the color graphics
and animation with an absolute minimum of power
lapped from the 68000 processor. For more intricate
program development, the (i8000 is fully available to
provide the power behind sophisticated software
design.

Audio/Peripheral Chip

The third custom chip within the Amiga handles the
sound capabilities, as well as the disk controller and
other input/output functions.

There are four independently programmable hard-
ware sound channels in l he Amiga, as well as a digital-
to-analog converter. You can control the volume and
amplitude for each channel as well as create and mod-
ify the waveforms. Each sound channel can generate a
three- or four-note musical chord, and vou can easily
select complete Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release fea-
tures from a menu.

Speech synthesis with unlimited vocabulary and both
male and female attributes is also possible through soft-
ware that controls this feature.

All four sound channels can operate together, inde-
pendent of the 68000 chip. Each voice has an 8 to 9
octave range, and Bass response exceeds thai of mosi
stereo systems. A MIDI interlace, available for the
Amiga soon after release, will allow you to attach highly
sophisticated synthesizers. Sound can be output to
stereo speakers, to a monitor, or to a television set.

Amiga's Friendly Ports

The Amiga boasts eleven ports that provide the
options for virtually any peripheral you might want
to add.

Among three video-display ports, there is first of all
an NTSC (National Television Standard Convention)
port for use with composite monitors. These monitors
support color graphics quite well, but are not recom-
mended for 80 column text displays.

P3 0 ©

IS Premiere 1985

Photography bv Michael Brown

Second, there is a port for connecting the Amiga to a
television set. Surprisingly, the Amiga provides an
excellent 64-column text display on a color TV set.
Most 80-column-output computers give an unreadable
display on a home TV, but the Amiga actually lends
itself to this type of display.

The third video port is the RGB (red-green-blue) ana-
log/digital port, most recommended for use with the
Amiga color monitor that will be available. This is a
high-resolution RGB monitor, which will fully tap the
best of the Amiga's graphics and text features.

For sound output, there are two separate stereo
sound jacks, making it possible to achieve true high-
fidelity stereo sound. The use of the Amiga for music
and sound production is likely to flourish as more and
more professionals discover its sound capabilities.

There are also three ports for adding peripherals: an
expansion disk-drive port, a parallel port and a stan-
dard RS-232 port. The Amiga can support many differ-
ent brands of printers. The difficulty will be in
selecting the one that's most appropriate for your pri-
mary applications. As for color printers, the Okimate
10 and 20 thermal transfer printers from Okidata and
the Diablo (series G) line of color ink jet printers are
Amiga-compatible.

The disk-drive port can accommodate cither 5'/t- or
3/,-inch disk drives. If you wanted to, you could daisy-
chain up to three separate drives coming off this port.
On the side of the Amiga, there is also an expansion-
port bus, an important feature for third-party manufac-
turers. Because this port allows full access to the (>H0O0
bus, most peripheral vendors will use it when designing
hard-disk drives, tape backup, multifunction cards, etc.

Both the RS-232 and parallel ports can accommodate
modems, and most off-the-shelf modems will work.
However, three modems are especially recommended: a
1200-baud, Commodore-manufactured Hayes-compati-
ble modem, the Hayes SmartModem and a 2400-baud
modem from Tecmar.

The two separate reconfigurabie controller ports that
are built into the Amiga can accommodate a mouse,
game paddles, joysticks, graphics tablets, light pens and
optical scanners. Lastly, there is a connector for the
cable to the Amiga's detached keyboard.

Now that you have an overview of the internal hard-
ware, let's take a look at how you actually manipulate
ihese powerful features.

User Interface

The Amiga User Interface is composed of system soft-
ware that handles the multiple graphics-windowing sys-
tems of this computer. Controlled by a two-button
mouse, this software allows total use of the powerful,
multitasking capabilities of the Amiga — and this is true
multitasking, not task sharing.

The Amiga's memory can hold many different soft-
ware application programs, and they each can access all
of the computer's hardware resources. The interface
lets you display information from several applications
without any conflicts and provides you with an orderly I

Amiga Workbench. Taken from a preliminary version of the user
inter/are, presented to shmv the capability of the system.

AmigaWorld 19

Amiga

Mac

IBM PC

PC AT

Microprocessor

080(10 Motorola

68000 Motorola

8088 Intel

80286 Intel

16/32 bit

8/16 bit

16/21 bil

Speed

7.8 MHz

4.77 MH/

6 MHz

,\ lemon

256K RAM

128K RAM

64 K RAM

256K RAM

I92K ROM

64 K ROM

40K ROM

64K ROM

Expansion

Upto512K

Up to 512K

Up to 640K

Up to 3 MB

(useable RAM)

(external — up to 8 MB)

Disk Capacity

880K

400K

360K

1.2 MB

334*

$%'

5'//

»•/,"

Video Display

RGB

Composite
Color TV

Monochrome

Color

Yes

Separai

e color card'

4,096 colors

(black & white only)

16 colors

on one screen

Highest Color

6-40 x 400

512x342

640x350'

Resolution

Keyboard

89 Keys

58 Keys

82 Keys

84 Keys

Numeric Pad

Speech Synthesis

Yes

{built-in)

(unlimited text
to voice)

Music

4 channels-
(stereo)

1 channel'
(monaural)

1 voice

i voice

I/O Ports

RS 232

Serial

(built-in)

Parallel
Serial

Table 1. A comparative look at the features of the Amiga from Commodore, Apple Macintosh, IBM PC and PC. AT.

'Not included in IBM PC and PC AT basic units.

The Amiga has four hardware audio DMA channels, 'The Macintosh has four software-driven voices, which
which feed two stereo output ports. The processor is use over 50% of the processor's lime,
not accessed for sound generation.

method of controlling several activities at once. This
full-performance system is the epitome of single-station
multitasking.

What is amazing about the Amiga is that each of its
application programs can have complete and unhin-
dered access to all the features of the computer. Each
application "thinks" that it is running on its own dis
tinct terminal, referred to as a "virtual terminal." There
can be as many such terminals as application programs,
all coexisting in the computer.

Once a program has activated its own virtual termi-
nal, it can access the full range of the Amiga's hardware
features. It has an entire screen display for itself, and it
can print text and lap all of the graphics and sound

modes. One program can actually open up several vir-
tual terminals, each one functioning as a totally distinct
computer system.

Windows and Screens

The virtual terminal is presented to you through a
"window" that you can modify, shape and move any-
where on the screen. Each window is capable of han-
dling its own software application. The number of
windows appearing on a screen at one time is only lim-
ited by the amount of memory required to perform the
applications residing in those windows. You can over-
lap windows, change text fonts within them, change
their size and, through the use of "gadgets," completely
control the activities going on within them. By moving
these gadgets with the mouse, you gain control over
each window within each screen.

20 Premiere 198")

Screens were developed in die Amiga for bundling
multiple windows thai share I he same graphics attri-
butes. However, using multiple screens, you can have
windows with different levels of resolution uiid color
simultaneously displayed on the monitor. For example,
you could divide the display into two horizontal
screens. In the upper screen, you could have a spread-
sheet in one window and a word processor in another,
each running four-color, (i'10x200 resolution. In the
lower screen you could have a business graphing pro-
gram running in a window using 16-color. ^20x200
resolution. All three programs will be running simulta-
neously, in different windows, using different colors
and resolutions. This kind of multi-screen, mulii -win-
dow, multi-resolution multi-tasking is completely
bevond the capability of other graphics/windowing
environments, such as Digital Research's GEM or Micro-
soft's Windows.

Screens are controlled jusl like windows, and any
given screen can be one of four colors. They are
dragged around, overlapped and uncovered bv means
of the two-button mouse. The only difference between
a screen and a window is that screens can't be horizon-
tally scaled. The Amiga's screens are actually of second-
ary importance to you; the multiple graphics windows
are your main concern.

The Amiga User Interface usually defaults to Work-
bench, which is both an application program and a
screen. Workbench has a high resolution of 640 x 200
pixels, with a four-color display. Most people will use
this feature as a predefined screen, on which disks are
opened and application programs are run.

Iconics and Command Line Interpreter

[cons are pictures representing activities that the
computer performs. These are good for introducing
you to a new system and for running turnkey opera-
lions. You simply move a mouse around, which in turn
controls a screen cursor. When the screen cursor is
positioned on top of the appropriate icon, you press
the button on the mouse and the desired action takes
place. This obviates the need lor typing in direct com-
mands— and having to learn the specific syntax rules
for each command.

However, what about the proficient user who may
want to gain more direct control over the computer?
For him or her. Workbench offers a lull command line
interpreter within each screen beneath the windowing
system. With access to the command line, you can
directly load and run a program from disk. You can
control the entire operating system via direct com-
mands issued at this command line, and it is available
at any time within all screens.

Menu System

Each window is assigned its own menu containing its
own particular text and graphics items. You can control

Multiple Witulinuittg. Taken from a preliminary version of the user
interface, presented to show the capability of the system.

Photography by Michael Brown

AmigaWarld 21

Interacting with Amiga

By Jim Held

Imagine a world where televisions have typewriter
keyboards instead of the familiar tuner, volume control
and brightness knobs, and instead of turning the
dials — a task we learn at a frightfully young age— you
have to type awkward, hard-to-learn commands, like
CHG CHNL(5) to change the channel and VOL UP(.56)
to turn up the volume. To make things worse, every
manufacturer uses different commands for the same
tasks, meaning that buying a new TV or just trying to
work the one in the hotel room involves learning a
whole new set of commands.

You might chuckle at this imaginary, keyboard-driven
world, but it's exactly where most personal computers
come from. Instead of letting you perform tasks you're
already used to, such as opening file drawers, throwing
things in trash cans and pushing buttons, most com-
puters force you to learn cryptic commands, then sim-
ply sit there with a blank screen and a blinking cursor,
waiting for you to type something. It's no wonder that
people are often intimidated by computers, and it's not
surprising thai the majority of the workforce doesn't
use them. How can a computer increase vour produc-
tivity when you have to spend hours — or months— just
learning how to use it?

Enter Amiga

Fortunately, the engineers at Commodore-Amiga real-
ize that you shouldn't have to learn how a computer
operates to be able to use one. The result is the Amiga,
one of a new breed of personal computers that lets you
work the way you're used to working instead of forcing
you to learn awkward commands. The Amiga separates
you from the technicalities of the computer, letting you
concentrate on your work. It simplifies complex con-
cepts by using a fast and easy-to-use two-button mouse
in conjunction with some things that have always been
worth quite a few words — pictures.

You've seen road signs that get their messages across
using pictures, such as squiggly lines beneath a car to
indicate slippery conditions, or a truck angled downhill
to indicate a steep grade. The Amiga uses pictures, or
icons, to represent disks, documents and applications
programs. To begin using a word processing program,
for example, you don't have to type WP or some other
strange command. Instead, you point to the word pro-

cessor's icon with the mouse, then click the left button
twice. To throw awav an old memo, you don't tvpe Del
Memo, as you would with an old-fashioned computer.
Instead, you point to the memo, and, while holding
down the left mouse button, you "drag" the memo over
to the trashcan icon.

Mentis and More

Icons are only part of the Amiga's approach to sim-
plifying computer use. Another equally important
aspect is the pull-dovm menu. Pulldown menus are lists
of available commands that appear instantly when you
click the mouse button on menu titles that appear
along the top of the screen. For example, a typical
Amiga application program might offer a menu titled
Style. When you click on the word Slylc, a list of type
style options appears — Bold, Underline, Italic and so
on. To choose the style you want, you simply hold
down the right mouse button and move the pointer
down until the desired style is highlighted, then release
the button. By contrast, most other computers offer
menus, but instead of letting you point and click to
make your choice, they force you to type awkward com-
mands, such as Control-PS.

Worse yet, other computers' menus are often com-
pletely different from one program to another. One
program might make you type K to edit a document,
while another asks for the number 3. One program's
menus might appear at the bottom of the screen, while
another's might not appear at all until you type a com-
mand. The software that creates menus was built into
the machine by the Amiga's engineers. This means
every company developing software for the Amiga can
create menus that look the same and operate in the
same way — using the mouse. The advantage? Once
you've learned one program, you're well on your way to
learning others.

This consistency between programs is just one of the
things that makes the Amiga so easy to use. In the
future, we'll examine these features in more detail.
We'll also take a look back in time at some of the inno-
vators who inspired the Amiga, like the people at Meta-
comco, creators of AmigaDOS. (It's interesting to note,
for example, that many of the Amiga's personality traits
aren't new, but were developed in research labs over
twenty years ago.) So, stay with us— the journey prom-
ises to be an exciting one. B

Jim Heid is a freelance writer who has been covering
microcomputers since 1978.

22 1'retmere 19X5

ihe menus within Workbench. Text and graphics are
accommodated within each menu. You can select what-
ever items you want within a particular menu without
having to return to a main menu. This is an advantage
of the Amiga User Interface over others on the market.
There is only one active window that receives input from
you. This window, highlighted on screen, determines
which menu will appear when you press the mouse's
"Menu Button." Another feature of the Amiga User Inter-
face is the use of submenus that appear if a selected menu
item has further options available. A word processor win-
dow may have an option for font selection on its menu;
when selected, a submenu will appear, with options for ital-
ics, underlining, boldface, etc.

Programming Languages

The Amiga doesn't have a built-in programming Ian
guage; instead, it comes with a disk-based version of
Basic. There are several additional languages already
available that the Amiga supports. These include Pascal,
Logo, C and Assembler. Much of the preliminary soft-
ware development for the Amiga was done in C on
other computer systems. This computer is an open sys-
tem, allowing for easy transportability of languages and
programs.

The Amiga Keyboard

The Amiga has a detachable keyboard with 89 keys
and a numeric keypad for easy large-scale data entry. It
also has ten function keys across the top, which are
available for all kinds of software control. There are
also two special Amiga keys to the left and right of the
space bar (for resetting the system).

Also included on the keyboard are TAB, CTRL, two
SHFT keys, two ALT keys, CAPS LOCK, four cursor-
direction keys, a large return key, a help key, back
space, DEL, ESC and a -v key.

Software

When you buy the Amiga, you'll get the keyboard
and system unit, which houses the hardware and disk
drive. To get you going, you'll also receive several disks
holding various applications software programs.

On disk, you will get AmigaDOS, which contains the
Amiga's operating system and user interface. A tutorial
program on how to use the machine is included, cre-
ated under contract by Mindscape Software. You'll also
get the disk-based version of Amiga's Basic (called
ABasiC), a speech synthesis program that features male
and female voices and an unlimited vocabulary, and
finally, Amigascope, a rolling graphics demo from Elec-
tronic Arts.

You will have a choice of word processors when you
buy the Amiga. If you're a newcomer to computers,
you'll probably want to purchase Textcraft, an entry-
level word processor put out by Commodore-Amiga.
For more sophisticated word processing needs. The
Software Group's Enable/Write word processor is avail-
able. This is one of the well-known applications pro-
grams in the integrated commercial business package
called Enable, which contains a word processor, a data-
base, a spreadsheet, a telecommunications package and
a graph program. ^

l' Fl:1

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Photography by Michael Brown

AmigaWorld 23

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—

To take advantage of the graphics capabilities of the
Amiga, you will want to get Graphicraft, created by
Island Graphics, and if you like music, Musicraft, from
Everyware, is a must.

Who Is the Amiga For?

The Amiga will overlap distinct marketing bounda-
ries because it is such a versatile machine. First, the
business market will be a primary target. Most people
will find that the Amiga costs much less and offers
much more than other curxendy available computers.
Those who think the Macintosh is the greatest com-
puter yet will fine" that the Mac significantly pales
beside the Amiga, and not just because the Mac doesn't
offer color. The potential business applications of the
Amiga have only begun to be imagined. The graphics

capabilities, compounded with the multi-tasking win-
dowing environment and the ability to transform non-
computerized photos and film clips into digitized color
screens, make the Amiga a business machine like no
other.

Not only will the business person benefit from the
unique features of the Amiga, but, more importantly, the
low cost of this powerhouse will place the small business on
a competitive level widi larger, wealthier (inns.

The Amiga will eventually move into the educational
market for the same reasons that it is bound to penetrate
the business scene. School systems are like small businesses
and often can't afford high-priced, high-performance
teaching aids. The Amiga, in the hands of a good teacher,
will totally redefine the term computer-assisted instruction.

Another market die Amiga will enter is that of profes-
sional artists and musicians. This computer is the first to go
beyond the clunky graphics and animation heretofore seen
on personal computers, and in so doing, merits the admi-
ration of the refined eye and ear.

When you take a step back and look at all the features of
the Amiga, it is evident that this computer is much more
than just another advance in computer technology. The
Amiga is a new kind of machine thai will encourage devel-
opers and users to step beyond traditional ic'.eas and rede-
fine the world of microcomputing. H

Address all author correspondence to Margaret Mora-
bito, c/o AmigaWorld editorial, 80 Pine St.. Peterborough,
NH 03458.

Circle 23 on Reader Service card.

WHEN IT'S TIME TO
MAKE YOUR MOVE

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Lattice Cross Compilers let you take advantage of the
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programs for popular 68000 personal computers!

Use your MS-DOS, IBM mainframe, DEC minicom-
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management, rapid compilation, and access lo high-
speed peripherals. Since the Lattice C Cross Compilers
are fully compatible with the native compilers, you can
compile and link on the mainframe or the micro
interchangeably.

The industry-standard Lattice 68000 C Compiler for
the Amiga is available for IBM MS-DOS, PC-DOS,
VM/CMS and MVS/TSO, DEC VAX/VMS and
VAX/UNIX, and a variety of MC68000/UNIX and
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Make your move now. Call Lynn Magnuson at
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24 Premiere 1985

ANNOUNCEMENT

How Borland's Turbo Pascal

Found A Partner That Matches

Its Amazing Speed.

Turbo Pascal meets the Amiga".
Turbo PascaPhates to wait. With
Turbo, it's 'go fast' or 'go away'.
So before we committed to
becoming the exclusive Pascal
programming language for
Commodore's new Amiga, we
had to be sure that it was up to
speed. It had to be fast—and
it is. 68000-based, with custom
chips and graphics, Amiga
doesn't dawdle. (In fact, Amiga's
speed is going to be a headache,
a heartache and a headwind to
the Competition.)

We think Amiga will take
off— just like Turbo Pascal did.
With more than 400,000 users
world-wide, Turbo Pascal has
become a de facto standard —
and grown into a complete
Turbo 'family'. A family that
now includes Turbo Database
Toolbox™ — a Turbo Pascal
enhancement with fast data
access and sorting talents; Turbo
Graphix Toolbox" — a set of

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Circle 13 on Reader Service card

graphics procedures keyed to
business, scientific and engineer-
ing applications; and Turbo
Tutor™— the one tutorial that
will take beginners and make
them experts, AND will even
teach a few things to the experts!

Turbo Pascal and all its
associated tools, will be available
for the Amiga in the first
quarter, 1986. It's already
implemented for the IBM PC

family and IBM-compatibles,
and other microcomputers from
Texas Instruments™, Hewlett
Packard™, DEC™, Wang™, Apple®
and NCR™.

When you're faster than
anyone else, you look for
someone who can keep up with
you. Turbo Pascal found Amiga.

I stood up straighter, lost
my cynical sneer, gaped
rather stupidly and
elbowed my neighbors in
the ribs. The Amiga had
cracked my armor — with
sheer, naked power.

Cynicism and Seduction,
Speed and Software

By John Pandaris

The Amiga is going to change the way
American offices do business, but no one
yel knows just how. I'm AmigaWbrltTs busi-
ness applications columnist, and I don't
know, either. In this column, we'll follow
the computer, its users and software compa-
nies—with luck, we'll stay half a step ahead
of them — and find out.

Amiga Solutions won't be strictly a busi-
ness column in the sense of Honeywell
mainframes and Fortune 500 accounting. I
sold it to the editors as a "business/personal
productivity column," to explore how peo-
ple work with the Amiga, in settings rang-
ing from corporate offices to homes, and
the tools available for that work. I'll try to
land somewhere between "Amigas on Wall
Street" and a random software roundup,
but productivity will be a general topic.

That suits me because I'm a generalise
interested in how people use computers
rather than in comparing the arctangent
functions of Whi/.zoCalc Release 3 and
AmeriCalc 2.10. Amiga Solutions will try to
spot some trends or general directions in
the Amiga support and software industry.
I've evaluated products and pontificated on
trends for half a dozen magazines, and I
couldn't resist getting in on the ground
floor with AmigaWorld.

Snubbing the Mac

I was also hired, I suspect, as the maga-
zine's resident conservative, or cynic, with
no connections to Commodore or Amiga-

WarUCs parent company, CVVC/P — someone
who's formed a healthy respect for the IBM
PC and its MS-DOS imitators, 1981-vintage
technology though they are, and was im-
pressed but not ga ga over the advent of
Apple's Macintosh.

The current phrase "power user" will
fade as did the odious "user-friendly," but
its meaning makes sense in the MS-DOS
world. Once you learn eight or nine cryptic
commands and dive into a huge pool of
rarely simple software, you can do quite
well with an antique PC. I'll be the first to
admit that MS-DOS' user interface (comput-
erese for how you work it) lakes some
learning, but I never tire of challenging
Mac users to drag race: While Mac-
Mouscketeers delete disk backup files, click-
ing and dragging them one by one to a cute
picture of a trash can, I can type del *.bak
ten times.

The comparison is particularly unfair lo
the original (January HI84) Macintosh,
which challenged computing's de facto stan-
dard with barely a handful of available pro-
grams and a bunch of hardware handicaps.
Today's 512K Mac, with outside companies'
hard disks (and PC vendors' prompt mouse-
and-window additions to MS-DOS), have
shown the value of easy instructions for
powerful software. But the first Mac was
best appreciated as a preview, a demo, a
scratch-and-sniff ad instead of a bottle of
perfume.

The 1984 Mac, to put it plainly, promised
terrific software, but it simply lacked the
hardware to rival the mighty IBM. Apple's
ads, hilling themselves as the inventors of
the personal computer, are shameful lies,
but the Mac team's battle cry of an "in-

26 Premiere /9A'5

Photography by Michael Brown

AmigaWhrld 21

The central concept of the
Amiga's architecture is to
preserve the 68000 for the
data-crunching it does best.
Other support chips han-
dle mundane chores, such
as reading keyboard input
and stepping the disk mo-
tor, leaving the 68000 free
for better things.

♦

sanely great" computer is merely silly. Com-
puters are simply tools, and no computer is
insanely great. Bach, Hawthorne and filet
mignon may be insanely great, hut no com-
puter deserves this accolade, especially not
one with only 128K, no industry-standard
parallel printer port and a single disk drive,
the latter only slightly quicker than the
Commodore 04's infamous 1541, which
'loads data faster than you can type it!"

First Impressions

My cynicism was tested on April 1(1, when
AmigaWbrld editors and I attended a sneak
preview of the Amiga at Commodore's
Pennsylvania headquarters. Except for hav-
ing only one built-in disk drive (H80K on a
microfloppy is fabulous, but single drives
make vital file and disk backups a tiresome
process), the Amiga looked impressive — a
nice keyboard, lots of interfaces and expan-
sion ports, a sharp display. To be exact, il
looked like a PC and worked like a color
Macintosh.

In order to keep the entry price low.
Commodore has configured the basic-
Amiga as a 256K machine. It has also
priced the expansion up to 512K. at only
$200, So that, for any serious user, the ma-
chine will be typically configured as a 51 2K
machine.

An Amiga engineer showed off the ultra-
colorful graphics, the smooth movement
and animation and the magnificent sound
and music with a program that turned the
Amiga into a banjo, a snare drum and a
ballpark organ. Dealers and writers oohed
and aahed: The Amiga was clearly a perfor-
mance-caliber musical instrument, a CAD
(computer-aided design) drafting system
and the best arcade-game computer ever
designed.

Having awakened at 3:45 am to catch the
plane, I was cranky and cynical: The micro-
floppy drive wasn't as fast as an IBM hard
disk, and we couldn't tell how the Amiga
would sound b\ itself, without big stereo
speakers under the table (where, if it were
mv desk, they'd be kicked to death in a
week). More important, what about every-
day applications? "What's the point?" I mut-
tered to the writer beside me. "People don't
use symphonic sound and animation. They
use spreadsheets."

Then, blessedly silencing a booming, ani-
mated bouncing ball, a second engineer said,
"Now let's turn to the operating system and
put some windows on the screen," and flicked
two windows lo and from the display as
quickly as he could tap the mouse button. I

stood up straightcr, lost my cynical sneer,
gaped lather stupidly and elbowed my neigh-
bors in the ribs. The Amiga had cracked my
armor — with sheer, naked power.

All computers are last; along with detailed
accuracy, speed has been the machines" raison
d'etre since the barn-size ballistics plotters oi
World War II. Even primitive computers can
perform calculations, format text and so on
faster than any human or team of humans
working by hand.

But the Amiga is Mazing fast, eerily fast,
pretcrnaturally fast. The Apple 11 beau an
abacus and the IBM PC beats the Apple,
but, watching the Amiga demonstration, all
I could think of was something I once saw
during a sports car race at Connecticut's
Lime Rock Park: A race-prepared, street-ille-
gal. 500-horsepower Corvette thundering
down the main straightaway, slowing for the
turn, and then being passed from out of no-
where— from the beginning of the straight,
a quarter-mile behind — by a knee-high,
white, whirring Porsche 1135 Turbo, Other
micros simply aren't in the Amiga's class.

Let's Get Technical

There are two reasons for the Amiga's su-
perior speed. The first is its Motorola 68000
CPU (central processing unit), the same
chip found in the Macintosh and scores of
multi-user office systems. The 1)81)00 han-
dles 32 bits of data at a lime, though it fun-
nels input and output it onl\ I '• bits at a
lime. I be IBM PC's Intel 8088. b\ contrast,
has half the capacity — Ifi-bit data, 8-bit ad-
dress—and its definition of "at a time," the
ticking clock rale that governs computing
in liny, discrete steps, is one-third slower.

But. powerful as il is. the 08000 isn't the
ultimate processor: Intel and Motorola have
made advances, apparent in IBM's ferocious
PC AT and Apple's rumored "Turbo Mac."
And no chip is quick enough to satisfy soft-
ware designers, who cry "Faster! Faster!"
with even more zeal than users like me.
Such programmers have pioneered some-
thing that has become standard practice in
the PC world, and it's the second secret of
Amiga's success: cheating.

Part of it isn't cheating so much as sensi-
bly allocating resources; the racer who
owned that Porsche Turbo didn't use it for
trips to the drugstore. The central concept
of Amiga's architecture is to present- the
68000 for the data-crunching it does best.
Other support chips handle mundane
chores such as reading keyboard input and
Stepping the disk motor, leaving the 0800(1
free for better things (like a master chef
who needn't worry about arranging napkins
and silverware).

The cheating part involves DMA (direct
memory access), the trick of moving data

2X I'remiere 1985

through RAM while bypassing t lit.' normal
CPU and input/output channels. Km' pulling
information cm the screen ("Go Directly To
Video Port; Do Not Pass CPU"), it gives a
-speed bonus analogous to using a tele-
phone hot line rather than going through a
switchboard.

It complicates matters if you're trying to
make hardware PC-compatible — you must
map obscure byways as well as main
roads — but DMA has been a staple of IBM
software since programmers found the lim-
ns ol the NOSH chip (it's fast. Inn nol fast
enough for the likes of Lotus 1 -2-3). And
die Amiga combines the speed of (he (>HO(Jt)
with massive amounts of direct memory
access.

The 68000 is aboveboard, but the Amiga's
lop secrets are three cusiom chips code-
named Agnes (animation). Daphne (graph-
ics) and Portia (ports, sound and peripheral
control). Besides things like Portia's four-
voice sound hardware and mouse/joystick
interface, they contain 26 DMA channels
plus an additional microprocessor, called
the "copper" (part of Agnes, it's the main
mechanism for controlling the other two
chips, freeing the 68000 from nearly all the
work of redrawing the display and updating
audio channels).

The most important DMA channel, also
part of Agnes, is called the "blitter" — a cir-
cuit designed to draw lines and copy screen
display data, moving or animating images
Caster than the general-purpose (iHOOO
could. Never mind thai it makes gee-whiz
arcade games; the important thing about
the blitter is that it runs windows, desktop
or workbench environments, through hard-
ware instead of sluggish software. If the
rules for shuffling windows and menus are
like frequently used phone numbers, Amiga
has them memorized. Slower systems, like a
PC running Digital Research's GEM, have to
look them up.

It's this hot-rod hardware that makes the
Amiga quicker than the Macintosh and
even the PC AT, both of which must process
graphics, sound and windows through their
CPUs, Combine the Amiga's dedicated de-
sign with the fact that computers are swifi
anyway (they yawn and idle between fast
typists' keystrokes), and you can see
why I elbowed my neighbors at the
demonstration.

Do you think I'm exaggerating about
yawning during pauses? This 68000 chip

spends half its lime doing iniernal opera-
tions instead of addressing memory, so il
works at full speed, although Amiga engi-
neers only allocated it every other clock
cycle (the discrete steps I mentioned) dur-
ing the constant, TV-style process of re-
drawing the display screen. The odd cycles
go to disk and audio and display DMA, and
the 68000 musi share the even cycles with
the copper and blitter, which can hog cycles
during especially complex or colorful ani-
mation, the one lime it appreciably slows or
handicaps the CPU.

Even under these circumstances (whal the
developers' tech manual cheerfully calls "nasty
mode"), the Amiga should manage lo add your
spreadsheet before you lose patience. A clock
cycle takes 280 hillionths of a second, and
there are 226 of them during each horizontal
scan of a line of screen dots.

Yours for the Tasking

By now, you must realize that (he Amiga
chips delegate so much responsibility that

ihe CPU is left with only part-time work,
Most of the time, in most applications, (he
68000 will be as underworked as a circus
strongman tearing a Kleenex.

To remedy this waste of power, here's the
second thing that impressed me in Pennsyl-
vania: You can assign the Amiga mulliple
jobs, running more than one program at
once. To use jargon, the Amiga is a multi-
tasking computer (not lo be confused with
multi-user systems, which lei people at dif-
ferent terminals share a CPU). In fact, it's
more multi-tasking than you are, or than
you'll need it to be.

This reflects a concept that, until Amiga,
has been more common than true multi-
tasking among personal computers: fore-
ground and background lasks. Priming a
long document, for instance, is often turned
into a background task by a spooler (an ac-
ronym for simultaneous peripheral opera-
tions on line), an area of memory or a
separate box that takes the document in
one gulp so the computer is free for other
work. "Desk accessories," made popular by
the Macintosh and followed by PC products
like Borland International's Sidekick, lei
you call up notepads or calculators while
using a program. The next release of
AmigaDOS will incorporate more of these
desk accessory functions to exploit the
multi-tasking capabilities of the Amiga,
thereby enhancing personal productivity.
No doubt many Amiga owners will use
multitasking in this simple way; I'll proba-
bly play Pole Position while priming future
columns. But multiple Amiga programs,
even those in windows overlapped or com-
pletely hidden by the one you're using. ►

Because of the A miga s
speed, multi-tasking
operating system, its ability
to address 12 times the
memory of the PC and 2.5
times that of the AT, and
its hardware and software
support for hard disk and
tape back-up units, the
Amiga is uniquely
positioned to fulfill the
needs of the business
world — at a price that has
the competition trembling.

AmigaWorid 29

Integrated software is a
crusade, in which the Holy
Grail is a blank sheet of
paper: a screen on which
computer users can do
anything, in any combina-
tion, they might do with a
pad and pencil. Scribble
some words near the top,
put a graph in the middle,
tally a table at the bottom,
print it out just so. . .it's a
gloriously simple idea, but
it's hard enough to break a
programmer's heart.

don't wait in the background like calcula-
tors. They're Cully operational, all (unctions
active, as if running by themselves.

As far as they're concerned, they are. To
quote the tech manual, each multi-tasked
program has a "virtual terminal," meaning
that the software thinks it has a keyboard,
monitor and CPU of its own. If I call you
on the phone while you're editing a report,
you can switch your attention to me often
enough, say "Mm hmm" at the ends of my
sentences, to make me think I have your
undivided attention. To fool computer pro-
grams, you have to switch very fast, indeed.

The End of Integration?

The business environment is a hungry en-
vironment. The original IBM PC was intro-
duced in the fall of '81 in a KiK version
with a cassette port; it was the needs of
power users that eventually drove IBM to
introduce the XT and AT. A comparison of
the Amiga with the PC AT is useful. The AT
can address 3 megabytes (nib) of memory;
the Amiga can address 8 ml). The AT is the
only micro in the IBM line that supports
multi-tasking under MS-DOS 3.0. The
Amiga also supports multi-tasking. The AT
has hardware and software support (e.g.,
support hierarchical Tile tiireciory) for a
hard disk. So docs the Amiga.

The AT, however, obviously cannot pro-
vide any of the advanced graphics, anima-
tion or sound capabilities that make the
Amiga so exciting for vertical markets,
especially design environments and the cre-
ative arts.

Because of the Amiga's speed, multi-task-
ing operating system, its ability to address
12 times the memory of the PC and 2.5
times that of the AT, and its hardware and
software support for hard disk and tape
back-up units, the Amiga is uniquely posi-
tioned to fulfill the needs of the business
world — at a price that has the competition
trembling.

Commodore has said that the Amiga is
the first in a family of products based upon
the same technology — given the enormous
capabilities of the Amiga's architecture, it is
easy to imagine how subsequent versions of
the Amiga could be configured to meet the
special needs of the business community
even more directly. The only missing piece
in the Amiga's hardware strategy for busi-
ness is networking and telecommunications,
which Commodore has said il will address
in the first half of L986.

How we use multi-tasking, what differ-
ence il will make from day to day, will be
one topic I'll follow in this column. We've
found the obvious uses already — to sort a
lengthy list or receive telecommunications
information while working on something
else — but it'll be fun to look for more, to
relate the Amiga's potential to what is hu-
manly possible.

The Amiga can, but I can't, use a spread-
sheet and write a letter al the same mo-
ment. But I'd like to have both available
and Hip between them (though not as often
as every 280 nanoseconds), and I'd like to
refer to spreadsheet data in my letter. This,
though it may be cutand-paste instead of
true multi-tasking, is where I suspect the
Amiga will shine, and where il may make
its most significant impact aside from
graphics and sound. It represents the
triumph of dedicated applications and
the demise of integrated software.

Integrated software is a crusade, in which
the Holy Orail is a blank sheet of paper: a
screen on which computer users can do
anything, in any combination, they might
do with a pad and pencil. Scribble some
words near the top, put a graph in the mid-
dle, tally a table at the bottom, print il out
just so. . .it's a gloriously simple idea, but
it's hard enough to break a programmer's
heart.

Ovation, an MS-DOS package that genu-
inely seemed to grasp the "blank page" con-
cept, sent critics into ecstasy in late 1983
previews — and dragged its vendor into
oblivion a year later, having never quite
beaten its bugs or made it to the market.
Titans clashed last summer: Lotus's Sym-
phony versus AshtonTate's Framework.
The latter won all around, while the former
took the spreadsheet event, but neither
one has set the world on fire.

What's good about integrated software is
its versatility, such as the freedom to splice
spreadsheet rows into text files. What's bad
is that there has never been an integrated
package whose functions are as good as sin-
gle-purpose programs. The "one big pro-
gram" that Ovation promised to be is as
distant as Einstein's unified field theory; in-
tegrated packages are still mainly separate
programs tacked together. And, as long as
they're buying separate programs, people
want the best ones.

Nobody buys Lotus 1-2-3 for its database
function, an awkward imposition of filing
on a spreadsheet format. Some buy it for its
graphics, a spreadsheet adjunct valuable
enough to tolerate a separate program and
disk-swapping for printing. But most buy it
because it's a big, fast, excellent spread-

10 i'rrmiere 1985

sheet. Given the power to have several pro-
grams instantly available without starting
and stopping, I'll wager Amiga owners will
choose individual excellence over inte-
grated compromise. In effect, Amiga own-
ers, using the machine's multi-tasking
capabilities, will be able to create their own
integrated packages using whatever combi-
nations of individual programs they choose.

Some things will have to be worked out,
of course. AmigaDOS has a cutand -paste
clipboard like the Mac's; software compa-
nies must support it, with a common for-
mat for swapping material between
applications. Separate programs probably
won't let you play "what-if" games right up
till printing time, though it would be ideal
if changing the spreadsheet on page 2 auto-
matically redrew the graph on page 5. Inte-
grated software fans complain that learning
different programs is a chore; presumably,
Amiga commands will be at least similar,
with the mouse and menus. Besides, thou-
sands of folks use 1-2*3 and WordStar,
which haven't a command in common.

The early deadline has made this an atyp-
ical column; I've indulged my love of tech-
nical explanations and sweeping generalities,
but I haven't had the chance to test any
Amiga software. I'll have more to say about
software in the future, though, preferably in
conjunction w:ith an exciting new product
that AmigaW'orld has promised me first crack
at. If it's available, it'll be the star of next
issue's column; if not, I should at least have
gained more hands-on experience to back
my windy generalizations.

Once we learn about its site and strategy
in a Big Blue world, we can turn to the
Amiga as a star in its own right: a machine
that can not only do brand-new things (e.g.,
using voice synthesis as part of a super tele-
communications system or presenting
boardroom demonstrations with animated
graphics, music and narration), but that will

also let us do traditional things in brand-
new ways. It's not insanely great, but it's the
most impressive microcomputer hardware
I've seen. I'm looking forward to writing
about it.

Writing, that is, with a word processing
program, working on one document in one
window. I'm a conservative about some
things. ■

Address all author correspondence to

John Pandaris, r/n AmigaWorld editorial, 80

Pine St., Peterborough. NH 03458.

Circle 30 on Reader Service card.

SOUNDS GOOD TO US

PCP

THANKS COMMODORE-AMIGA™!!

EVERYWARE", producers of MU.SiCRAIT'", the quality music program for the new Amiga" Computer, would like to take this opportunity
to congratulate Commodore and the team at Amiga for a job welt done.

To find out more about our products for the Amiga, fill mi! the form below. For a charter subscription io our newsletter, enclose si 2.00 V. s <»1S ihi foreign) You will learn about sound
jnd graphics tips and tricks plus all the late breaking news about the Amiga. Hl.'KKY and take advantage of this introductory offer.

□ Musieraft

D Musieraft Albums

□ MIDI Controller Software
D 6-Jft * 200 Oraphic System

n Newsletter
U Other

Name _
Address
City

State .

. Zip _

EVERYWARE, INC. • Sound & Graphic Software • P.O. Box 3-S18 • Northridge, CA. • 9!32J

AmwJ- M.„„-,., m -™km»k,..r<. .„,„»*]„„ ,„,„., ,„ .-ax-j-m-k , t„dcmJlk lM|,„,„i,,.,c4hn0 ,;„„,,„,!,„ . •:„„•„,„. bH ,,„„„! JoiliJlrf „„h , ,„„„„.!„„.„

nup ■ l , ivHs KVMYWARt. IM:

AmigaWorld 31

AmigaWorld

Sophisticated, Stimulating, and System-specific

When you use the most sophisticated and exciting
computer on the market today, you deserve an equally
sophisticated and exciting companion magazine.

Introducing AmigaWorld, published by
CW Communications/Peterborough, the leader in qual-
ity computer publications. It's the only magazine for
Amiga users.

AmigaWorld 's clearly-written features help new users
take full advantage of the newest Commodore. Plus,
lively and fully-illustrated articles offer inspiration to
everyone who wants to be creative while learning.

You'll get outstanding color reproduction on high-
quality, oversized pages. Instead of a reasonable facsim-
ile, you'll see true-to-life examples of the Amiga's color-
ful graphics!

y,f,,Yl ,'Vl ,',',',17'

i' i~ /' r" i' J i j i i r I..L I
j" ; i j fill i i r ! I

tT^~ ^~ ¥ u u * M r i III

1/ f 111

—

Magazine

Making the Amiga Work For You

With unrivaled graphics and sound capabilities, the
Amiga is already in a class by itself. AmigaWorld not only
tells you why, it shows you how every incredible feature
can work for you.

In each issue, AmigaWorld authors will guide you
through a new frontier of computing!

Subscribe to AmigaWorld today and:

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home and business applications.

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359R2

Arktronics Corporation

creator of

Textcraft

the Amiga Wordprocessor

congratulates

Commodore-Amiga on the introduction
of its exciting new product.

Look forward to myriad product offerings from
the Arktronics Corporation

Circle 10 on Reader Service card.

Textcraft and Amiga are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga Incorporated

Gneativitu

AMIGA

What If.

Either you already own an Amiga personal computer,
or you are thinking about buying one. Why.' Probably
for a number of reasons. Computers of any sort can be
valuable tools for writing, storing information, telecom-
munications, games and hundreds of oilier things. But
why an Amiga? The price is a definite plus. Not many
other computers can offer even a quarter of the Ami-
ga's features at twice the price.

The Amiga can do ail the things that other personal
computers can do. only faster, better and cheaper. The
Amiga can address more memory (and can therefore
run larger spreadsheets) titan the IBM PC It's easier lo
use and offers far more features than the Macintosh.
And, the traditional database management, word pro-
cessing, accounting, inventory controlling, mailing lists,
telecommunications, forecasting, modeling, simulations
and number crunching can all be handled with the
Amiga. And you never have to lake il for walks.

The graphics capabilities of the Amiga are far be-
yond anv other computer costing under S20,000, and
the sound and musical qualities are also remarkable.
The B8(tO() chip is a powerful processor, able to leap
tall calculations in a single keystroke, but there are
other capabilities of ibis machine thai are not (mile so
easy to see.

With llie MIDI interface scheduled to he mil some-
time in I'.IMf), i he Amiga will be able to interface with
the most advanced electronic musical instruments.
Combine this with die already impressive array of musi-
cal instruments and sounds built into die Amiga, and
you have the ability to orchestrate a musician's dream
ol synthesized, professional quality music. All for well
below sound studio prices.

With that kind of sound editing and generating equip-
ment available at a reasonable cost, the Amiga should
spark renewed interest in music from a classical stand-
point. People will be more inclined to buy themselves
and [heir children electronic keyboards, drums and syn-
thesizers, with software to help them learn, al a price less
than a second-hand piano. The Amiga could also influ-

ence the music of the future. Given the ability to gener-
ate custom sounds and even custom "instruments" the
Amiga looks like a strong candidate as the new musi-
cian's tool of choice, expanding the "one-man-band" con-
cept far beyond what anyone thought was possible.

Companies working on music software are also going
to bring new turns to the world of sound and music. Peo-
ple will be able to create pieces that cannot be played
with anything other than a computer. We'll hear melo-
dies so complex that no human fingers could work fast
enough, on strings or keys, lo play them. But the Amiga
will play them perfectly every time.

The Amiga's built-in voice synthesis will change the
way we use computers. There have already been a few
pioneering software and hardware manufacturers who
have worked on the integration of voice and software,
but now that it is within easy reach of anyone with an
Amiga, 1 think that there will be some remarkable
things done in many areas. The educational aspects of
a talking computer, combined with some innovative
leaching programs (not just drill-and-practice exercises),
means that students will be able [o learn new languages
at their own rale, learn how to read and write, have the
computer teach them about computers or any of a
thousand oilier things. It's not hard lo foresee a lime in
the near future (one or iwo years at most) when the
Amiga as a tutor will supplement public school teachers
in many areas where personalized instruction is prefer-
able lo a classroom environment

But the graphics. Ah. . .the graphics! The Amiga is
going to out-shine any and all in this area, and Amiga
owners are about lo take the rides of their lives — into a
new world of interactive animation, sounds and colors,
streaming bv in an arcade like blast or drifting leisurely
in detailed splendor, matched only by Disney and his
artists. The Amiga can do all this and more, if asked.

16 l'i

/9.S,:>

Illustration by Matthew Foster

AmigaWorld 31

Ah. . . the graphics!
Amiga owners are about
to take the rides of their
lives — into a new world
of interactive animation
and color.

.md people will ask. There is Finally an afforahle com-
puter than can do the kinds of things that software de-
signers have concocted in their imaginations, hill
haven't been able to execute with existing hardware.
Games conceived and written long ago. which were left
on the drawing board, will finally see the light of a
color monitor thanks to die Amiga.

Digging a bit deeper inio the Amiga is like owning
an expensive car for (be fust lime. There are plenty of
bidden features and little things, which show that some-
one has taken his time in designing this machine. All of
this adds up to more than anything else on the market.

The people who buy Amigas for office or home use
will probably not encounter things built into the Amiga
to provide software and hardware manufacturers with
open architecture and an easy programming environ-
ment. For a developer, having full access to the (iHO(K)
bus through the expansion pori and direct memory ac-
cess of up to eight megabytes are jusi two elements of
Amiga design that make the machine special. Other
outstanding features include the custom VLSI chips,
which handle such things as graphics, color, animation,
music and speech synthesis.

Programmers have the option to develop on host ma-
chines, like the IBM PC. Sun Systems or on ibe Amiga
as a liosi computer, and easib convert Apple Macintosh
software to run on the Amiga, bv making use of hard-
ware drivers for the screen, input/output functions, etc.,
and a large library of ROM routines. The ROM library
is also a clever way to ensure compatibility with future
versions of the Amiga. They may add new chips and
features to the next generation of Amigas. but thev
plan to keep the same ROM calls, entry points and re-
sults. Current software will run on a next-generation
Amiga, even if the software doesn't make use of all the
new features thai Commodore niiglit cook up.

A multi-tasking operating system, windows, variable
color and screen resolutions, icons, pop-down menus, a
two-button mouse and other standard features of the
Amiga add to the developer's list of reasons for want-
ing to work on the Amiga. The fact that the Amiga is
the first fully developed multitasking personal com-
puter below the Unix environment is enough incentive
for many developers. But apart from the built-in hard-
ware bonuses, there is another non-hardware plus in
working with the Amiga — the company itself. Many de-
velopers have said that they are getting a great deal of sup-
port and expert advice in almost every field from the
people at Commodore-Amiga. This is going to make quite
a difference to everyone working on new products.

Indirectly, these factors will have an impact on tin-
rest of us mortals who will be using the machine. Since
the Amiga is such an attractive computer for devel-
opers of software and hardware, many new products
will appear on retailers' shelves. Since the Amiga has
features that no other computer can offer, developers
will be exploring the boundaries of the machine. Like
the software writers who have been kicking ideas
around for a long lime but couldn't implement them

>$ Premiere W^

Wioductivitu

AMIGA

because of hardware limitations, there are also hard-
ware manufacturers who have had ideas for peripherals
that only now can be put into action.

The Amiga is a challenge for them in many ways.
Since the machine will be priced lower than any other
machine with similar features, hardware and software
manufacturers will have to try to keep prices down. As
a result, this should bring a number of products into a
broader market. Products that were previously sold ex-
clusively to small numbers of people using expensive
computers can now be sold to a wider range of users.

some of these phenomena out of the multi-million dol-
lar sound studios and into homes. Video animation and
special effects will not be restricted to Hollywood pro-
ductions, such as Star Wars and TROX. Before long, it
won't cost a fortune to create your own "high-tech" spe-
cial effects or make your own MTV videos. Digitized
images printed on T-shirts won't be a shopping mall
novelty for long.

Of course, there won't be many people who will want
to do all of these things with their Amigas. but there
will be thousands of people who will buy the computer

Not onlv will this spur the development ol new kinds
of software and hardware, but it will also mean that
more people will see some of the work that has already
been done on much more expensive machines. Com-
puter-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Engineering
software has been around for a few years, but most of
the really remarkable things that have been done in
these areas haven't been seen by the majority of per-
sonal computer owners.

Electronic music has exploded with new. sophisti-
cated breakthroughs, and now the Amiga will bring

for one or two of these reasons. The vertical markets
are where the Amiga will shine.

Anv business will find that an Amiga is a worthwhile
investment. If nothing more, the Amiga, with a business
graphics package, will produce professional <|U.ility
charts and graphs in minutes. Enter the values and
click a button, and you have a bar chart all filled in
and ready to print. Not quite what you had in mind?
Click the button a few more times, and you have a pie
chart, an exploded pie chart and an exploded three-
dimensional pie chart. All within a few moments of sit-
ting down at the machine. The Amiga produces clean,
sharp, professional-quality reports, papers and propos-
als. And if the boss doesn't like it, a few minutes on the
Amiga is all it takes to change the report. Anything that

Illustration by Jack Haeger

■til Premiere 1985

'Enable is everything
Symphony hoped to be!'

"Quice simply, this package has so many outstanding
attributes that even the worst skeptics of integrated
software have to be impressed. The spreadsheet is very
close to 1-2-3; the word processor combines the best
thinking of WordStar, MultiMate, Volkswriter, and
Easy Writer; the data base offers the functionality of
dBASE II, but with many of the ease-of-use features of
PowerBase; and the program offers business graphics
and telecommunication. Taken as a whole, Enable
surpasses the functionality of Symphony, Framework,
Aura and Open Access'.'

IBM PC Update

December. 1984

" ... as powerful as a collection of stand-alone programs,
and it offers the benefits of integration to boot. What's
more, it runs in only 192K bytes of memory'.'

ComputerWorld

March 20. 1985

"Offering true integration among all of its applications
modules. . . [Enable is] a powerful production tool
that can serve everyone in the office, from data entry
personnel to the vice-president of marketing. Each
module could stand as a full-powered application in its
own right'.'

PC Magazine

February 19. 1985

"Enable is one of those programs that can be up and
running with most of the fearures you need in a few
hours. As you need more, you can get deeper into the
program and learn at your own pace'.'
InfoWorld
January 21 . 1985

Enable first in "Performance" rating— including speed

and capacity of all modules tested. Enable first in
"Versatility" rating-including power and functionality

of all modules tested. Enable rated first in overall

evaluation of the word processor module.

Software Digest Ratings Newsletter
Rating oj 15 Integrated Products
December. 1 984

PC Magazine February 19, 1985

"Enable, a five-function integrated system from The
Software Group, merits a close look by any individual
or organization interested in a solid package that is
well balanced in all of its applications'."
Popular Computing
March, 1985, Paul Goldner. Raymond Heed,
Yoram Lirtzman. Michael Wilding

" ... if an office is looking to step up to across-the-board
integration with a multitude of functions. . . this is the
one program to seriously consider''

Personal Computing

March. 1985

"Enable welds its five applications together with
outstanding integrity-yet each is exceptionally full-
functioned in its own right'.'

Business Computer Systems

January. 19S5

"Enable . . . may be the first program to make you give
up your dog-eared WordStar, dBASE II, Smartcom
and Lotus 1-2-3 disks!'

Business Software
April, 1985

"Enable may legitimately claim to be the only package
you'll ever need'.'

Computer Buyers Guide
and Handbook

November. 1984

Integrated

software is no longer

a matter of

choosing which compromises

to live with.

integration without compromise

Traikmirfc*: Enable ■ The Software Group: IBM PC. IBM AT— International Ikisinew Machines Gxp.; Vulkswriter - IJfetrce Software. Inc : EasyVlnter — lnlbnnaii:>n Unlimited Software, Inc.;

wiin.tSLir— MicroPro Intemaiinna! C>wpfinitn>n ; dliV-h" n, dliASF, III, Framework — AshtonTate. Symphony, 12 3, k*us — Utfi^r^rlopment Girptiiatitin; MuIriMaie — Softwunl Systems. Inc.: Aura — Softrend,

Open Actress — Software Products International. Inc ; SmarUom — Hayes MtCJOCOmplKf Products, Inc.; VT 100 — Digital Equipment Gxpmiiiwi: Pawct&BC — PoWHtte Systems

Circle 15 on Reader Service card,

The A miiyi inn do all
the things thai other per-
sonal cam/niters ran
do — only faster, bt'tter
und cheaper.

requires charts, graphs, diagrams, illustrations and even
pictures, ran he done on the Amiga. With a video cam-
era and a frame grabber, complete repair manuals
could he composed in-house, complete with labels, ar-
rows, footnotes, etc. The Amiga can go all the way from
eye-grabbing bulletin hoard messages to multi-volume
publications.

But you're nol limited to the printed page, either.
Imagine a presentation where graphs change over time,
where you can show the "what ifs" of a changing mar-
ket or product, a new idea, an improvement, an altera-
tion, an add-on to existing machinery or changes in
personnel or office space. All of this can be done in
cnlcr and data can he changed in minutes.

The Amiga will be an incredible "what if" machine
in planning. The machinery in a manufacturing plant
or living room furniture can be arranged on-screen
first. You can arrange the pieces of a puzzle, any size
puzzle, from scrambled words to arrangements of
charmed quarks. Designing can be a certain, carefully
calculated, one-engineer affair or the collaborative
brain-storming of a committee, all done with a mouse,
digitizing tablet or light pen — quickly, cleanly and with

the option of starting over or printing out the results
on hard copy, color hard copy, slides or videotape.

Designers of anything will find that the Amiga, with
the right software, is the ultimate design processor from
the initial inspiration to the finished product. Virtually
anything can be designed with the Amiga — machinery,
clothing, electronic circuits, parts for anything, doilies,
cabinets, toys, weapons, cars, vacations, bicycles, tarrot
cards, greeting cards, business cards, story boards, game
boards, diving boards, emery boards, board rooms, flow
charts, ocean charts, three-dimensional charts and maps,
wall charts, etc.

With the Amiga's easily accessible, built-in speech syn-
thesis, self-documenting software will become self-explain-
ing software. The music and sound features will be a hoi in
for performers, composers, audio-philes, audio engineers,
jingle writers, symphony writers, radio stations, television
stations, recording studios, record companies, language
labs in schools, musical instrument manufacturers, music
video producers and movie producers. We'll all rise for our
national anthem played on an Amiga, send singing Amiga-
grams (electronically), make sound tracks for home video,
record telephone messages, use talking alarms and security
systems that can call the police or fire department, and so
on and on. . . .

42 Premiere 1985

With the Amiga, Com-
fmter-Aideil Design soft-
ware will reach a
broader market.

I'm just having a little bit of tun here, bui everything
mentioned is not only possible, but probable. Look
around you. Just about everything you see could have
been designed using an Amiga, fust about anything on
paper could have been produced with an Amiga, [ust
about everything you see on TV could be enhanced us-
ing an Amiga. There are other computers thai can do
these things, and there are some computers that can
outperform the Amiga in certain areas, but there isn't a
computer anywhere that can match the Amiga feature
lot feature, ai an\ price (lei alone the Vmiga\ price).
The Amiga is a launching pad for hardware, software
and a score of tilings that haven't been invented yet.

Some people may never do more than write memos
wish the Amiga, while many more will see the possibili-
ties and begin explorations. If this is all a bil too much
to swallow then lake half a step backward. Ai the very
minimum, the Amiga is stale of the art. A very good
computer at a very good price. It's easy to use. there's a
solid company behind ii and enough software to put
the machine through its paces in half a dozen applica-
tion areas. It's upgradable, expandable attd not bad
looking. Have I forgotten anything? ■

GSW

Address all author correspondence In Guy Wright, c/n
AmigaWorld editorial. HO Pine St.. Peterborough. XI 1 03458.

Illustration by Island Graphics

AmigaWorld 43

Amazing/Graphics

We had the Amiga set a table filled
with graphics appetizers and visual
delicacies to give you a taste of form,
shape and color. Bon app'etit!

Somehow, "amazing graphics" doesn't say enough
about (lie Amiga's visual capabilities. It's like saying
Bach was an audio engineer or Shakespeare was just a
manipulator of text. But the Amiga does have amazing
graphics and when reading about it, you'll encounter
thai phrase a number of times.

Since the Amiga's graphics are such a predominant
feature, there will be numerous references to the 4,096
different colors available; the 640x400, 640x200 (with
16 colors) and the 320x200 (with 32 colors) resolution
modes; the seven layers of sprites; and the dedicated
graphics chips that make highspeed animation possible
(without using any of the 68000's impressive speed).
And there'll be talk of bit blitters, NTSC video output,
frame grabbers and gen lock add-ons (planned for the
future).

Bui what does all this mean to the user in the home
or office? (How many colors do you need for a data-
base or spreadsheet, and just what is a frame grabber
anyway?) It all boils down to — you guessed it — amazing
graphics. Take the pieces a few at a time.

First, 4,096 colors. That doesn't take much explain-
ing. There are only a few personal computers anywhere
that can match that number. You won't be able to put
all 4,096 colors on the screen at one time with the basic
Graphicraft package, but you'll be able to put any 32
of those colors on the screen at once. And with a small
amount of programming wizardry, you can expect to
see commercial programs using hundreds (maybe thou-
sands) of colors at one time. (A quick note: Island
Graphics, the company that developed Graphicraft, is
working on some advanced graphics programs that will
make all other graphics programs look like paint-by-
numbers.)

What about the resolution modes? In the case of
graphics, the higher the resolution — the more pixels in
a matrix — the better. A pixel is a dot on the screen; it

can be the size of a period or larger. It's the difference
between drawing with a fine-point pen or drawing with
a magic marker. And, by the way, low resolution on the
Amiga (320 x 200) is the highest resolution achievable
on most other home computers.

What about sprites? A sprite is a block of graphics
information that the computer treats as a single unit.
For instance, if you want the letter A printed on the
screen, the computer goes to a master list of characters,
pulls out the pattern of dots necessary to form the let-
ter and puts the whole block pattern on the screen. A
sprite is just a larger version of a character-block pat-
tern. The advantage is that you don't have to keep
drawing the same object over and over each time you
want to move it around the screen. You just instruct the
computer to draw it in a particular place, then issue
movement commands to place it wherever you want.
The result is faster and smoother animation.

But that isn't where the idea stops. Sprites are usually
one size when defined (or added to the master list) and
even though the computer can expand the size of a
sprite vertically or horizontally, what happens when you
want something larger and more detailed? You could
combine sprites to form larger images, but the Amiga is
more versatile, letting you define any size area as a
block, which the computer treats as a sprite, so you can
move it around on the screen as you like. To accom-
plish this feat, the Amiga uses something called a blit-
ter. To put it simply, the blitter moves blocks of
information around in the computer very quickly and
bit by bit. if you wish.

On top of these sprites and blocks and bit blitters, there
are priority levels (where sprites can pass in front of or
behind other sprites) and even transparencies (where you
can see through sections of sprites and view objects that
pass behind them). All of these special effects are done
without bothering the 68000 chip, so the 68000 can worry
about other tasks, such as calculating the angles of refrac-
tion in an optical modeling simulation; the graphics chip
will handle the actual display of a lens being rotated
through intersecting, multicolored laser beams. I

4-t Premiere 1985

The last few add-ons mentioned above, the gen lock
and frame grabber, wouldn't be possible if" the Amiga
weren't up to NTSC standards (NTSC is a television
standard in this country). A gen-locking device lets you
mix video signals (don't ask me how), and a frame grab-
ber can take a single video frame, digitize it and feed it
into the computer. So what? So take your home video
tape recorder and superimpose graphics and titles over
your newest product as it rolls off the assembly line, or
take a single frame of your Aunt Maude, draw a mus-
tache on her (or airbrush it out if she already has one)
and print the results on your printer.

Much Ado About . . . Much

All these fancy features mean that, graphically, the
Amiga can do it — sharper, faster, easier, in more detail,
with more colors and in more ways than any other sin-
gle computer ever made. If you just want to draw pic-
tures, the Amiga gives you more options than any other
personal computer. If you want to see outstanding ani-
mation, the Amiga, right out of the box, will out-per-
form anything in its class.

Airsickness bags included with flight simulator soft-
ware? Exploded, 3-D, color pic charts? No problem.

Previous page: The
Mandrill. A digitized
photograph showing the
range of colors and
detail possible on the
Amiga. Above: Basic
circle, triangle, square
and lines. Right: Any
thickness of line, brush
stroke or pattern can be
combined with various
graphic tools such as
ellipses, curves, circles,
etc.

46 Premiere 1985

Illustrations by Glenn Suokko

How about a videotaped walking tour of an assembly
ine? You can freeze the frames, label items with clean
iiroivs and descriptions and even add graphics. Print
Hit these frames and include diem in a report or train-
ng manual. Why do you need graphics capabilities in a
jusinessr' Well, how much do you want to show that
:an't be done on a normal typewriter? How much time
>r money have you spent on training, charts, graphs,
presentations, logos and designings-
Create your own ads, logos, charts, graphs, illustrated
eports, music videos and store displays. The Amiga is
i design processor for visual images when words aren't
■nough.

These pages are just the tip of a very large, very col-
irful iceberg. All done on an Amiga. All designed to
how you a sampling of the graphics possible on this
nachine. In later issues, we'll continue to look at and
xplore the Amiga's graphics in more detail, but to
tart, we thought we'd just touch on some of the fea-
ures. Let the Amiga do a little showing off for the cam-
ras. Flip a page or two and see what we mean.

We don't really need to say it again, but what the
leek. The Amiga has amazing graphics! ■

AmigaWbrld 47

AMAZINGGRAPHICS

Right: Freehand color
cycle using largest brush
stroke. Opposite page,
top left: Pentagon done
with a three-dot brush.
Opposite page, bottom
left: Color cycle airbrush
with dotted line.

48 Premiere 198?

AmigaWbrld 49

Above: Cycle- filled
ellipses. Right:
Repealing curves with
two fixed points.

50 Premiere 1985

AmigaWbrld 51

I N

H I C S

52 Ihemiere 1985

Opposite page, bottom:
Beginning to put it all
together. This page, top:
Octagons with shades of
blue color cycling. Left:
Color cycle filled
rectangles with solid
squares and linear
rectangle.

Amigattbrld 53

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and dotted line.

AmigaWbrld 55

Stimulating Simulations:
Electronic Arts Gets Involved
with the Amiga

By Jim Forbes

Entertainment is serious
business for Electronic Arts,
which boasts some of the best
Amiga programs and program-
mers. Find out how the com-
pany's unique attitudes and
innovative strategies are
keeping everyone happy.

How many times have you wondered who pro-
grammed your favorite software package? Perhaps
you've wondered how long it took lo develop your fa-
vorite program or how it evolved. In most cases, those
questions will remain unanswered, unless you are look-
ing at a program from Electronic Arts,

Electronic Arts, located in San Mateo, California, de-
velops a variety of entertainment and personal produc-
tivity software for the Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari
and recently, the Amiga from Commodore. According
to Trip Hawkins, the company's founder and president,
Electronic Arts is dedicated not only to being a highly
successful business, but also a place where program-
mers are thought of as artists. The result; programmers,
or artists, have been flocking to Electronic Aits lo work
on software for the new Amiga.

At a time when "legitimate" software companies,
funded with millions of dollars in venture capital, are
struggling to carve shrinking niches in the market for
"serious business" software. Electronic Arts has been
concentrating its efforts on interactive entertainment
and personal productivity, and it appears to be doing
very well.

The company is best known for games like Hill
Budge's Piuhall Construction Set and Oneon-Onc, a
basketball game. According to Hawkins, a quiet native
Californian, "Games are fun. They're what we've built
our reputation on and what we'll continue to build our

future on. There's absolutely nothing wrong with com-
ing home and playing games on a computer. . . I think
the Amiga is the best computer I've ever seen for
entertainment"

Apparently, both the programmers under rontracl to
Electronic Aits and the customers agree. Repeatedly,
games produced by a varying staff of artists, hacked by
the administrative talents of Electronic Arts personnel,
have found their way to the top on lists that record the
sales performance of various software packages.

Therefore, it's not surprising that Commodore
turned to Electronic Arts early this year for innovative
programs that would educate and entertain and help
sell the Amiga lo consumers who want a computer for
creativity and productivity.

New, inexpensive disk-based entertainment software
for the Amiga will shortly be on shelves throughout the
country. Hawkins proudly points to a list of 1 1 existing
programs that are nearing completion and promises at
least four others within a few months. Some of the cur-
rent titles being packaged for the Amiga include: Ar-
clum, Oneon-Onc, Seven Cities of Cold, Skyfox and
Staillight. New titles include a variety of cockpit adven-
ture simulations with graphics and excitement that ex-
ceeds arcade machines.

The programmers who are joining Electronic Arts lo
work on die Amiga are "serious professionals," says
Hawkins. "They view development for the new machine
as an incredible challenge. It's a lot more complex than
a Commodore li-1 or Apple II, but il has the types of
features that many programmers have wanted for a
long time."

The need for recognition, as well as the challenge of
working with a new personal computer, are definite in-
centives to working for Electronic Arts. However, most
programmers who work there seem reluctant to admit
they were attracted by the prospect of being Healed
like a "star." Instead, they cite as their main attraction a
quiet type of professionalism in which they can better
concentrate (heir efforts.

Bill Budge has been under contract with Electronic
Arts for two years. He says, "the company has good
people and a vision that I share. Bui more importantly,

56 Premiere 1985

The Development Team.
Back row standing: from
left to right: Mike
Wallace, Dan Silva,
Eddie Dombrower, John
MacMillan, Steve Hates,
Jerry Morrison, David
Maynard; Bach row
seated, from left to right:
Dave Boulton, Glenn
Tenneyjeff
Johannigman, Anne
Westfall, fon Freeman,
Steve Sliaw; Seated front:
Bob Campbell, Greg
Riker

it eliminates the need for me to market, sell, package

.iiid promote mv own product. This frees me tor what I
do best — programming. The types of arrangements
Electronic Arts has with its contract artists also helps
the artists focus on the right products. It acts as a kind
of filler for the creative process."

A more recent addition to the Electronic Arts' lineup
is Jeff Brown, a veteran Apple employee who worked
for the 32-bil Macintosh and Lisa personal computers
from the time of their inception. Brown signed with
Electronic Arts because they were willing to "bet on
people." Brown stops far short when it comes to being
called, or treated, like a star. "I'm a craftsman, and I do
the best job I know how. I sought them out and they
si7.ed me up. Later, they offered me a contract to de-
velop a program for tile Amiga that will be known as
Music Manuscript I suppose the real reason I joined
their team, though, was because I trusted them and they
trusted me."

The structure of Electronic Arts resembles that of a

record company; a primary goal of the organization is
to help the artist make the best possible product. Devel-
opers are free to call on a variety of technical, market-
ing and research professionals whenever they are
needed.

On a day-to-day basis, the programmers deal with a
producer, who tends to their needs and answers their
questions. Each producer handles about six artists, re-
ports Greg Riker, Electronic Arts' Manager of Technol-
ogy and the man who doles out the precious supply of
prototype Amigas.

Riker may uiulcrst.mil die record business almost as
well as he understands the production of software. Be-
fore being recruited to work for a personal computer

AimgaWorhl y~

Left: Financial (look-
book. Right: Julius F.rv-
ing and Uirry Hird Co
(Me-on-One.

company ;nul moving to California, Riker spent about
five years touring with a band, first as a roadie and
later as an acoustics engineer.

Riker gets excited when he talks about the software
the company is developing. So far, screen displays and
the use of the Amiga's sound chip are, in Riker's view,
extremely tantalizing. "The intent of the Amiga's inven-
tors," he explains, "was to rekindle the same excitement
that got people into personal computing in the first
place. Commodore-Amiga has really succeeded in excit-
ing the developers we work with." Riker also says that a
lack of Amiga prototypes may have helped, not hin-
dered, Electronic Arts' development efforts for the
Amiga and other future personal computers. Although
it wasn't until early this spring that the company began
receiving Amiga prototypes — black boxes that do not
resemble the off-white units found in retail stores
airnvs the c ountrv — Electronic Arts was well into devel-
opment by the time the first developer received the
first Amiga prototype.

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Riker credits much of their progress to the develop-
ment of something he calls an "artist's workstation," a
combination of hardware, software and peripherals that
allows the programmer to develop Amiga software on
an IBM PC or compatible.

According to Riker. the workstation concept was de-
veloped in an effort to get products quickly onto retail-
ers' shelves and to overcome the need to have
extremely valuable Atnigas al the office or home ol
each artist. The concept for the artist's workstation, as
well as an extensive library of software routines de-
signed to reduce the time necessary to produce graph-
ics software, premiered at the first meeting of
AUGUST, one of several Electronic Arts' in-house
Amiga artists user's groups.

There are several versions of the Electronic Arts
workstation. The basic unit is an IBM PC with a hard
disk, 640K of random access memory (RAM), a propri-
etary plug-in card, special software, a graphics card and
a high resolution monitor, \ccording to Riker. the sys-
tems are worth between $4000 and S9000. If a program-
mer doesn't already own an artist's workstation, the
company will supply him with one and deduct its cost
from the artist's advances or royalties.

Some of the electronic "tools" included with the IBM
PC workstation include comprehensive software editors
and debugging tools necessary to convert code written
for the IBM PC's 8088 microprocessor into a compati-
ble language for the Amiga's Motorola 68000 CPU.

Ironically, the screen displays of a S9000 IBM PC AT
(used in the artist's workstation) have less graphical res-
olution than the weakest mode of the Amiga.

When development is nearly complete, the producers
supply their artists with one of the Amiga prototypes
that seem to be in constant demand by Electronic Arts
software developers. The artists perform the final
phases of development on an Amiga.

In the development of Amiga software at Electronic
Arts, it is essential that producers and support people
stay in close touch with the artists. That's why Trip
Hawkins pushed his company to install a large-scale
electronic messaging network that artists now access
from their homes and offices using modems and the
workstations. "We communicate electronically with our
artists every day," says Hawkins.

Not only does the network link producers and sup-
port staff to the artists, but it also provides the artist
with access to a fast-growing database that contains
working code for programs that are already running on
the Amiga.

"Bv using the network, artists can access a large soft-
ware database containing workable code for animation,
sound and other software routines, to see how other
developers have handled similar problems. This re-
duces the amount of time and aggravation in develop-
ing complex software." says Riker. Artists working for
Hawkins' company also routinely share information at
weekly AUGUST meetings.

AUGUST User's Group

This user's group meets every Friday. The meetings
provide a chance for developers to share their tricks,
along with the latest versions of their programs. The
meetings are also a good opportunity for developers to
momentarily duck away from the intense pressure of
writing Amiga software code and play other people's
games.

Bing Gordon, Electronic Arts' Vice President of Mar-
keting, attends most of the meetings, lie has watched
the conception, birth and packaging of a number of
Amiga programs and reports "artists are incredibly ex-
cited about what they can do with the Amiga. The com-

58 Premiere 1985

fttufoi-tcte&trty>

vAmiga

Left: Archon. Right: Re-
turn to Atlantis.

filiation of its central processing unit, custom circuits
and graphics capabilities opens up a whole new era of
computer game opportunities."

Seated around a table, the authors of programs such
as Hard Hat Mack, Robot Odyssey, Summer Games,
Sword of Kadash and Get Organized, are openly ex-
cited over a chance to develop for what some AUGUST
members call "the next wave of personal computers."

According 10 Gordon, Mike Posehn, the author of
Get Organized, is typical of Electronic Arts' Amiga art-
ists, Posehn wrote Micropro's (the developer of Word-
Star) first text editor and holds a doctorate in computer
science. He is working on a program that is known in-
ternally at Electronic Arts as "Video Construction Set."
The program, which Gordon thinks will be priced well
below S100, lets Amiga owners create programs similar
to video recordings, using combinations of animated
text and graphics.

Posehn savs the program will be used "to build little
videos that are just like animated movies. The program
lets you use the Amiga like a television production

company and includes an on-screen display that resem-
bles and works like a remote controller for a video
recorder."

Bob Campbell, author of Hard Hat Mack, is working
on an Amiga program called Instant Music. Campbell, a
musician by training and a veteran programmer, thinks
the Amiga could open up the world of music to people
who lack extensive formal training. According to
Campbell, musicians using the program "won't have
to compose new rhythmic scales. We provide a high
level of support not found in other machines."
The authors of Summer Games are also actively at
work on Amiga development for Electronic Arts. They
say, "The capabilities of Apple's Macintosh pale when
compared to the Amiga. This is a professional devel-
oper's environment. There are 25 channels of direct
memory access and it supports real I/O commands."

Dave Boulton, the author of Adventure Construction
Set, says, "If Apple's software could have merged with
Amiga's hardware, Apple would have won the battle
against IBM."

Another artist who belongs to AUGUST is working
on an Amiga version of Marble Magic, a tremendous
arcade game developed originally by Atari's Coin-Op
Division in Sunnyvale, California. An arcade version of

this game is in the developers' room at Electronic Arts'
headquarters. More than a few artists show up for the
weekly meetings a tad early to try and beat the ma-
chine, which has been set on free play. Gordon jokes
that the Amiga version of this game will require a "mil-
itary-strength joystick."

Hawkins points out there is another reason for the
AUGUST user's group meetings: teaching old dogs new
tricks. "The Amiga's operating system is written in C, a
high-level programming language that is very efficient.
Most programmers are used to writing games in assem-
bly language. We've used the user's groups to teach the
programmers the C language," says Hawkins. The
Amiga and its language also help artists provide incre-
dible graphics detail in games and other programs.

Jon Freeman, who, along with Anne Westfall (author
of Temple of Apshai), is writing the Amiga version of
Archon, says, "In first-generation machines, like the Ap-
ple II and Commodore 64, we were able to suggest the
shape and texture of fantasy characters. With the
Amiga, we are able to show what the figures really are.
It's what a personal computer ought to do."

Griffons, phoenixes and dragons instantly take on de-
tailed shapes and hard character in the Amiga version
of Archon, as the program shifts from a board-level to a
tactical view.

Hawkins freelv admits that he's more than a little
partial to some types of games. "I really like tanks," he
says. "One of the new games involves a tank in Antarc-
tica; the cockpit views will be incredible."

Does Hawkins have any guilt about adults playing
games? "All species, including humans, play games well
into adulthood. Playing games on a computer usually
isn't like watching prime-time television, sitting back
and vegetating.

"Look at our game One-on-One. It contains a lot of
information about managing people and your own life,
and it's a lot of fun to play. Guilt over games? Not
really. 1 enjoy what we do too much," laughs Hawkins, I

Address all author correspondence to Jim Forbes, do Amiga-
World editorial, 80 Pine St., Peterborough, NH 03458.

60 Premiere 1985

Circle 4 on Reader Service card.

My Own Rags To Riches Story"

Chapter 3

The # 1 Reason
Small Businesses
j Use Computers

(My picture here)

(My name here)

knew the #1 reason small businesses use
computers is for accounting.* And I knew
Commodore-Amiga™ is an ideal small-business
personal computer because of its state-of-the-art
performance.

Naturally, I chose Rags to Riches™ accounting software to keep my books on the
Amiga. Because it is designed exclusively for
small businesses like

[retailers, consultants, service businesses, professionals, '
self-employed business people, farmers and ranchers,
warehouses, manufacturers, home-operated businesses ,

In fact, any and all small businesses!

Already my business colleagues have made Rags to Riches a national best-seller.**
Because the fully featured, double-entry Rags to Riches modules*** — Ledger, Receivables,

Payables let US f track sales and collections, manage vendors and cash |.

I flow, keep in instant touch with our financial status

Thanks to Amiga and Rags to Riches, my accounts, records, statements,

and bills are handled T 'aster, easier,

more accurately

Which frees me to spend my valuab
time doing what I do best and less time
on paperwork!

RAGSKgHES

America's Small Business Software
from Chang Labs

5300 Stevens Creek Blvd.
San Jose, CA 95129

For the nearest Rags to Riches Amiga outlet,
call 800-972-8800 (California 800-831-8080).

*The #1 software application for small businesses is accounting, according

to a Dun and Bradstreet survey,

"Rags to Riches ranks in the Top 10 of all accounting software retail sales

nationwide, according to latest surveys available in Computer Merchandising

Magazine.

•••Now Available: Ledger (general ledger). Receivables (accounts receivable).

Payables (accounts payable). Coming Soon: Sales (sales register)

"Commodore-Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
,, —, "Rags to Riches is a trademark of Chang Labs

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AmigaWbrld 61

A Talk with Trip

Electronic Arts President Trip
Hawkins talks about software
development, his company's
goals for the future and where
the Amiga fits into it all.

Trip Hawkins freely admits he hives games, lie
always luis. He started his first games company as
a 12-year-old boy growing up in Southern Califor-
nia. When he moved to Massachusetts to aitnul
Harvard, he convinced that university's adminis-
trators to let him combine studies in statistics and
psychology into — you guessed it — a games major.

After finishing at Harvard, Hawkins went back
west and completed a Master's Degree in ISusiness
Administration. Not long after that, he wait to
work for an unknown company still struggling in
its infancy. The company was Apple Computer.
Hawkins worked in a variety of marketing posi-
tions with Apple and eventually headed the mar-
keting efforts for Apple's Lisa. His work at Apple
brought him into contact with a number of pro-
grammers— contacts that would later prove ex-
tremely valuable.

After almost five years at Apple, Trip spread
his wings and started his own company. Elec-
tronic Arts. Headquartered in San Mateo, Califor-
nia, Electronic Arts is a place wheie programmers
are treated like artists. It is a successful company,
with more than a few well-known software design-
ers under contract to develop entertainment and
personal-productivity packages for the Amiga. Hill
Budge (Pinball Construction Set), Jon Freeman
and Ann Westfall (Archon) are all engaged in the
Amiga development effort.

Electronic Arts' headquarters is perched on a
mountainside in the Ilelmont Hills. Hawkins' of-
fice commands a view of San Francisco Bay. The
panorama outside his office is as exciting as the
personal vision he shared with AmigaWorld.

AmigaWorld: Why do you refer to program-
mers as artists?

Trip Hawkins: I guess it all starts with the
view that the computer is a new medium
for home entertainment. The software for
other media is produced hy artists, so we
look at software developers as artists and
we think of ourselves as supporting a cre-
ative process.

62 Premiere 19H5

AW: What is Electronic Arts' mission?

TH: We want to make software that makes
computers worth owning. We're dedicated
to finding software artists and helping them
lo do their best work.

AW: What types of things will people ivant in
the next generation of games, such as those you
are producing for the Amiga?

TH: They will be the same types of things
that people like to read about, or watch on
television. People are either looking for ful-
fillment through fantasy, or they are look-
ing for some new kind of challenge. Maybe
they've always wanted to know what it
would be like to ily an airplane, or maybe
they want to know how to conduct experi-
ments without something blowing up in
their faces. It can be just about anything.
But, a major ingredient in computer enter-
tainment is giving the user the opportunity
to be a hero.

AW: Are you a hero to software authors?

TH: 111 can help them to make money, I
am. fn specific cases we have been able to
motivate people to go beyond the skills they
thought they had. They appreciate that
about us. A lot of artists think we are a
first-class act, helping them lo do their best
work.

AW: Were the people who designed the Amiga
aware of the possible long-term effects of their ma-
chine on the personal computer industry? I'm re-
ferring specifically to the user interface, tlie
graphics and sound capabilities.

TH: Actually, I think they were the first
computer designers who really had the
awareness you mention. All the right things
are there.

AW: What are the right things?

TH: The first thing is hardware perfor-
mance. You have to have a fast processor
that is capable of executing compiled code.
We have been held hack in the past by the
limitations of eight-bit processors, which arc-
incapable of handling instructions of the
necessary complexity and can only address

04K. of memory. On eight-bit machines, to
produce a good piece of programming, you
have to work in assembly language. This is
a specific skill that some people have, but a
lot of people who have the artistic ability to
come up with great ideas don't have that
skill. Therefore, there are some limitations
on the kinds of products we can make for
computers using eight-bit central processing
units.

The Amiga, however, has a fast, powerful
central processing unit. With the Amiga, we
have been able to provide our artists with
developer's workstations that have the right
combination of hardware and software tools
to develop superb programs.

AW: Is the Amiga user going to be different from
other personal computer users?

TH: Yes and no. Many of the people who
currently own personal computers and have
caught the computing bug will want to up-
grade to the Amiga. I would estimate that as
many as 20 or 30 percent of existing per-
sona] computer owners will purchase the
Amiga. We went to a Commodore users'
group a few months ago and found that
most of the people at the meeting wanted
to buy Amigas.

AW: What types of Amiga programs can the con-
sumer took for from Electronic Arts?

TH: Some of our products for the Amiga
will be improved versions ol our existing
games and productivity software packages.
But we are also developing a number of
new heroic adventure games for the ma-
chine. Most of our packages will be avail-
able before the end of the year.

Because the Amiga has incredible sound
and graphics, users will find games that
have the feel of being much more like real
life. They will be able to immerse them
selves in the fantasy. This is an important
aspect of entertainment software.

What this industry needs more than any-
thing is this kind of excitement. It's been
lacking in many games.

AW: Is there any reason In Jeel guilt about film-
ing games with a personal computer?

TH; I've always found ii interesting thai
adults feel guilty about playing games.
Everyone needs leisure time to relax. Play-
ing games and using an interactive medium
like software happens to be one of the
more redeeming forms of personal com-
puter usage. It's a form of mental exercise
and a learning process.

AW: Given your perspective on the me of per-
sonal computers as an entertainment medium,
how do you manage the employees and artists at
Electronic Arts?

TH: The first thing we really believe in is
quality. Building the best software is not
only a good business strategy — it's really a
hell of a lot of fun. We take a lot of pride
in what we do. Achievement is also very im-
portant to us. We recruit our people with
these two values in mind. Teamwork is an-
other thing we really focus on here. Organi-
zational hierarchy doesn't mean a damn
thing at Electronic Arts. Having a good
sense of humor helps if you're working
here. Our software reflects our values.

AW: What are your future goals for Electronic
Arts?

TH: The thing that I find exciting about
computer technology is that it is not stable;
it has not settled down yet. We want to be
the first to Figure out how to use new tech-
nical breakthroughs like the Amiga to make
belter software. I think it is inevitable that
someday home and personal computing is
going to be something that everyone bene-
fits from. Right now it's something that
Yuppies — people with money — benefit
from. It's at a very early stage. The same
place that light bulbs occupied in Thomas
Edison's day. But someday soon we will be
able to do something with computers that
will really affect our lives in an extremely
positive way.

Trip Hawkins, Presi-
dent, Electronic Arts

A migaWurld 63

Digital Canvas

The Amiga computer is an impressive graphics tool,
but it is still just another computer until if s put into
the hands of an artist Digital Canvas is designed to
be a showplace for Amiga artists. For this premiere is-
sue, we convinced fack Haeger, Director of Amiga's
Art and Graphics Department, to do some showing
off for us.

Willi MB

Jack is originally from Chicago, Illinois, where he
spcnl two years at Northern Illinois University before
going on to get his BFA degree in painting from The
School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While attending
SAIC, he did some freelance illustrating for Ckicago
and Playboy magazines. Through Playboy, he found out
about a Chicago-based company called Williams Elec-
tronics, that was looking for a computer artist. Even
though he had no experience with computers. Jack
took a job there working on video aicade games. His
first arcade game project, Sinistar, was ranked number
one in the nation for three straight months. He
later worked on Star Rider, Williams' first laser disk
arcade game.

Inspired by the personnel and the machine's prom-
ise, Jack took a chance in 1983 and moved to California
to work at Amiga, which, at the time, was only a small
start-up company. He has been there ever since.

About his own work. Jack says "Up to this point, a lot
of computer graphics has been qualified as good simply
because it was done on a computer, but that isn't
enough. In my mind, it must first stand on it's own as
graphic art and secondarily as work done on a com-
puter. You can't just be in love with the media for its
own sake. The images must fulfill the fundamental cri-
teria of good design and aesthetics, A sense of humor is
also important. I think that the computer is an ex-
tremely dynamic tool for creating and manipulating
graphic art, and the impact that the computer will have
on the graphic world is going to be tremendous."

Take a look at some of Jack's work, and you'll see just
what an artist can do with the right tools. ■

64 Premiere 1985

AmigaWbrid 65

66 Premiere 1985

AmigaWbrld 67

"A lot of computer
graphics has been quali-
fied as good simply be-
cause it was done on a
computer, but that isn't
enough. . "

68 Premiere 19H5

AmigaW'orhi 69

70 Premiere 1985

AmigaWvrld 71

Sounds Like

Amiga's sound features can make you a
composer or conductor — even if you've
never played a note.

Voices, octaves, waveforms, sampled sounds, voice
synthesizers, phonemes, attack, decay, sustain, release,
envelopes, ring modulation, sawtooth, sequencers,
MIDI. etc. These are the elements of computer music,
sounds and speech. If you recognize and understand
these terms, then the Amiga is the manifestation of an
audio dream. If you don't understand them, take heart.
There are do/ens of music, sound and speech experts
out there who have fallen in love with the Amiga.
These people are going to make the Amiga sing for
you, play for von. talk to you.

It is sometimes hard to believe music and mathema-
tics are closely tied together, but there are people who
feel the rhythms of equations, and there are people
who calculate screaming guitar riffs down to N decimal
places. Some Bach pieces are so mathematical in design
that Bach only wrote one or two parts of a five-part
harmony, expecting the performer of the piece to work
out the relationships, steps and synchronizations for
himself. At the other extreme, there have been comput-
erized musical performances based upon the structure
of DNA molecules. So what does all this have to do
with the Amiga?

When you think of artificial intelligence, images of
computers taking over the world pop into mind; or if
you are a bit more realistic, perhaps "expert systems"
and business decision-making applications seem more
likely to you. One company, called Cherry Lane, is
using speech-recognition techniques developed at Car-
negie-Mellon University by Roger Dannenberg. They
are using these techniques in Cherry Lane's latest
music software project, called Harmony, for the
Amiga.

Harmony is the name of a computerized accompani-
ment program that is pushing the limits of the com-
puter/music relationship. It's an intelligent program
that plays along with you. That doesn't sound all that

fantastic on the surface, but check the wording of that
last sentence. The computer plays along with you, not
vice versa. The program "listens" to what you are doing
and adjusts itself in real time. It's as though you are
playing the lead and another musician is accompanying
you on another instrument. If you slow down, it slows
down. If you miss a note or two, it doesn't just keep
chugging away blindly (or, in this instance, deafly); it
adjusts itself to whatever you are doing and tries to
anticipate your next move. It follows, rather than leads.

The company is using Harmony as a jumping off
point, rather than as the ultimate package. Combined
with a scheduled MIDI interface. Harmony can be
linked to topof-the-line synthesizers, keyboards and
another of Cherry Lane's existing products, the Pitch
Rider, which lets you play an instrument into a
microphone.

So even though the Amiga can do a good to great job
of imitating a flute, either through true computized
synthesis or sound sampling (more on that later), with
the Pitch Rider, Harmony and a MIDI interface, you
will be able to play a real flute and the computer will
follow along. Sometime in the not-too-distant future
(can we hope very near to the Amiga's launch date?),
you will be able to play music into the computer, have
the software write the musical score for you, go back
and edit the score, and then, as you play different
parts, have the computer play along with you.

Cherry Lane is working on sampled sound software,
which will mean the ability to take a sound, any sound,
digitize it and then turn it into an instrument that can
be played back. For example, you will be able to record
the sound of a bottle being broken, and then, after
some software chicanery, play a broken-boltlepiano, let-
ting the computer adjust the pitch of each "note."
When you touch the middle C key on your keyboard,
the result will be the sound of a bottle breaking in mid-
dle C; when you touch the G sharp key, the bottle will
break in a lovely G sharp.

These are not just the dreams of a music fanatic;
these are things that we should all be seeing within
months! Whom are they designing for? The profes-

12 Premiere 1985

Circle 6 on Reader Service card.

Cherry Lane Technologies &

The Amiga Personal Computer

Join Together in

HARMONY

We are proud to announce the arrival of Harmony, the first of a new generation of Cherry Lane
software developed for the Amiga. You can now take full advantage of the unique music and graph-
ics capabilities of this powerful computer.

Harmony is the ultimate in music accompaniment. The four internal voices of the Amiga, as well
as all 16 MIDI Channels will follow your lead. Every nuance of your performance will be followed
brilliantly. You can accomplish Accelerando and Ritardando at will. Even if you jump ahead or behind
in the score, Harmony will keep pace.

Harmony features:

• Full Score Graphics with repeat points
and scroll bars.

• MIDI Implementation of MIDI In,
Out, and Thru.

• Real time accompaniment to follow
your performance.

• Recording of your own accompaniments.

• Singers and horn players can use
the Pitchrider 2000 and take
advantage of Harmony.

Optional equipment includes:

• Full size 49 note keyboard.

• Extensive library of pre-recorded
arrangements.

Welcome Harmony.
The first part of an integrated music
composition and performance system
for the Amiga.

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AmigaWorld 73

sional musician, certainly. With the MIDI interface (a
state-of-the-art, high-end music product) and the ability
to use the Amiga as a sequence controller during on-
stage performances, people in the music industry are
already drooling at the potential of the Amiga. But
music is a computer language that everyone can enjoy.
And the programs that Cherry Lane is working on can
be used by the novice as well as the pro.

Other people are working on music for the Amiga,
and the first music most people will hear will come
from Commodore's Musicraft. The Musicraft program,
to be released in October, has features that can tune up
a tin ear, edit out mistakes and act as a serious tool for
the dabbler and the dedicated musician alike.

The computer plays
along with you, not vice
versa. The program
listens to what you are
doing and adjusts itself
in real time.

Musicraft will feature a sequencer, synthesizer and
keyboard. (Now, if someone can only think of a new
word to differentiate between a typewriter or computer
keyboard and a piano-type keyboard, it will make the
job of writing about keyboards a lot easier.) The
sequencer section of the program will let you write and
edit your music using the mouse or keyboard. (In this
case, "keyboard" may mean either type, because Musi-
craft will accept input from a computer or piano key-
board plugged into one of the ports.) You will be able
to write four-part pieces with a range of six octaves, in
twelve keys (musical keys like the key of D or the key of
G, not the D or G keys on the keyboard) and variable
time signatures (if you really want to play something in
y|,,lh lime, the Amiga can easily accommodate you),
assign different instruments to different voices and
even change intruments in the middle of a song. The
output is, of course, in stereo. There are so many edit-
ing commands that Musicraft might be considered a
musical note processor (as opposed to a word
processor).

In the library of instruments (well over a dozen at the
time of this writing, and I expect many more by the
Amiga's release date), there are a handful of sampled
sounds (mentioned above), and if you have never heard
(he Amiga in action, then be prepared for a pleasant
surprise. The Amiga doesn't sound like an electronic
organ trying to sound like an electronic piano. When
you ask the Amiga to sound like a violin, it sounds like

a violin, just listen. . .well, anyway, go listen to one and
hear what I mean.

Of course, if you don't like the instrument selection
included with Musicraft, there is the synthesizer section
of the program, where you can design your own sounds
or use sounds from the library and modify them to
your heart's content. You can alter the envelope,
timbre, volume, attack, decay, etc., and when you gel a
sound you like, save it to disk with the other instru-
ments and build your own Amiga orchestra. There is
probably a finite number of possible instruments and
sounds that you can create with the synthesizer, but it
would be safe to say that the Amiga can create more
sounds than the human ear can distinguish (literally
thousands, if you want to gel picky).

Put these features together with the Amiga keyboard
and you have a sophisticated musical instrument unlike
any you have ever heard. Musicraft, as mentioned, can
be played with a piano keyboard attached, or you can
"type" the notes using the Amiga keyboard. You can
redefine the computer keys to suit your fancy or your
fingers (very handy if, like me, your fingers aren't as
musically inclined as you would like them to be). Just
redefine the keys so that out-ol-key tones just aren't
possible, so that your fumbling fingers couldn't hit a
wrong note even if they wanted to. You can play along
with your own compositions or load in one of the
pieces in the score library on the disk (each with its
own keyboard layout), and play along with perhaps a
greater composer.

There are thousands of other things to talk about,
including speech. With the Amiga's built-in speech
capabilities, using a phoneme-based system, you will be
able to make the Amiga talk in either a male or female
voice. You will be able to enter text strings in Basic and
have the Amiga recite the Gettysburg Address, or your
sister's address. It is almost certain that software compa-
nies will have the Amiga read you the instructions for
operating a program, or give you auditory prompts.
The advantage of phonemes, which simply means pho-
netic sounds (e.g., L'h Mee Guh for Amiga), is that the
vocabulary is unlimited. With a bit of fiddling you
should be able to make the Amiga speak with a French
accent, or even speak French, if you wish. Like the
music features, the voice synthesizer will be able to do
more than your average computer.

This was not meant in be a comprehensive discussion
detailing all the features of Musicraft and the programs
from Cherry Lane; it was meant to be a quick look into
some of the things that are being done for the Amiga.
There will be many other articles covering sound,
music and speech in upcoming issues of AmigaWbrld, We
have only tried to give you the opening bars of a
symphony.

When I asked the people at Cherry Lane why they
were so excited about working on the Amiga, they said
that with the built-in sound and graphics and the MIDI
interfacing capability, they arc convinced that the
Amiga will be "the ultimate music machine." Ta da! I

GSW

Address all author correspondence to Guy Wright, c/o
AmigaWbrld editorial, HO Fine St., Peterborough, Nil
03458.

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A Peek at the 68000

By Brian Epstein

The Amiga and Motorola's 68000 chip mark the
beginning of a new era in microprocessing. What will
this mean for Amiga users? Here's a look at the recent
past and a peek at the future.

So what's the big deal about the 68000? Is it the chip
it's made out to be — the silicon wunderkind of the
early 1980s? Does it mark the end of the eight-bit era,
foreshadowing the demise of old friends like the 6502,
the Z-80 and 6809? If you're an old-timer of the eight-
bit world, you might not like to hear that not only does
the 68000 mark the end of that era, hut in all likeli-
hood, it heralds the beginning of the 32-bit era.

Farewell to the 6502

Commodore's decision to place a 68000 under I he
hood of the Amiga was based on its power, 16-bit archi-
tecture and the abundance of software already in exis-
tence for it (including fast compilers and high-level
languages).

The design of the chip lends itself well to such things
as compilers. In fact, certain machine-code instructions
available to the 68000 are only included for the specific
purpose of helping compilers. Instructions with names
such as Link and Unlink allow a program to be com-
piled from high-level source code to low-level machine
code with less hassle for the compiler itself. The pro-
grams generated this way will execute easier and faster
than if they were produced by an eight-bit ancestor. If
nothing else, this is the kind of thing that will inlluence
software writers in their decision whether or not to
write for the Amiga.

So, not only will the Amiga be programmable at the
old-fashioned machine-code level, but also with Fortran,
Cohol or C compilers — whatever suits you best. Assum-
ing the writer of a compiler knew what he was doing
with the 68000's instruction set, the final code gener-
ated should execute with very little overhead or sacri-
fice in quality of resultant code. This makes it a fair bet

that, of the early products that start appearing for the
Amiga, something like a C compiler (currently in
vogue) will be among the first to be offered. In fact, the
architecture of the 68000 determines, as much as the
capabilities of the Amiga, the kinds of software tools
that will appear for Commodore's newest micro.

The old band of chips like the 8080, the 6502 and
even the predecessor of the 68000 itself— the 6800—
are now doomed for forever and a day. Of course,
everyone suspected their days were numbered as soon
as the first 16-bit chips came rolling off the production
line, but somehow the 68000 has been the final coffin-
master, firmly hammering in those last nails. The new
machine demonstrates Commodore's realization of that
fact. The Amiga and the 68000 together mark the entry
of home microcomputing into the era of 16-bit micro-
processing power. This is a long overdue entry (as
10-bit microprocessors have been available for a couple
of years now), but one thai will probably lead, in the
long run. to 32-bit power as microcomputers become
more like mainframes.

A Little History

It's interesting to note that Motorola (the manufac-
turer of the 68000, or MC68000, as its official nomen-
clature strictly specifies) was in at the start and end of
the eight-bit game. It started with the 0800 way back in
197-1 in an attempt to improve upon the only existing
eight-bit microprocessor unit (mpu) at that time — Intel's
8008. The 6800 was surpassed pretty quickly as other
manufacturers joined the fray. Motorola, not to be en-
tirelv outdone by the competition, introduced a super-
set of the 6800— the 6809 — in 1978. Despite not being
lire most successful chip of the eight-bit era (that acco-
lade goes lo the Z-80), the 6809 was probably the most
powerful of the eight-bit chips. The one thing that
could possibly have been improved upon was its speed;
its power and instruction set (that is, the instructions
available to a machine-code programmer) were cer-

76 Premiere 1985

Illustration bv Phil Geraci

lainlv the most powerful of any eighl-bil chip mid prob-
ably will never be surpassed.

There's no longer any reason why a chip manufac-
turer would want to devote any lime, money or produc-
tion effort into furthering the cause of eight-hit
technology. So, in all likelihood, the 681)9 will reign
supreme as far as quality goes, whereas the Z-80 will
claim supremacy in sheer numbers.

Motorola, with its record of almost starting and fin-
ishing tile eight hit stakes, and despite not being the
most successful regarding total number of chips sold,
seems to fn- determined to assure ils success in the
16-bit Held and beyond. The 6809 demonstrated a wis-
dom and care in design that hadn't been paralleled in
other eight-bit chips; that same wisdom and attention to
detail was brought to bear when they worked out what
was going to be available in the 1)8000 (which was
finally introduced in 1979).

Fast and exciting graph-
ics software, including
3-D image manipula-
tion, is certain to reach
the Amiga market.

Motorola was also smart enough to realize that the
technology of eighl-bil chips couldn't simply be
expected to disappear overnight, so the 68000 was even
made available in an eight-bit version — the 68008. This
works as an eight-bit chip, but it uses the 68000's pow-
erful instruction .set and architecture. \ot only that, but
the tiSOOO and all its siblings (which include the 68010
and 68020) can actually use some of the powerful sup-
port chips that were designed for the 6800. 'Ibis 6800-
f'amilv of chips was, of course, originally intended to
provide peripheral support on an eight-bit bus. These
chips, which are by now fully tried and tested in the
real world of microcomputer peripherals, can still be
utilized by manufacturers who want to use the 68000
rather than the 6800. This is thanks to a clever hard-
ware trick or two, including special signals and pins on
the 6800(1 chip to allow easy interfacing to these eight-
bit devices.

So. now some of the power of the 68000 becomes
apparent. Not onlv is it a microprocessor with a highly
developed instruction set. and not only can it support
compiled languages, but it also can support a set of
hardware add-on chips that have been successfully
tested and in the marketplace for years. Thus, the
1)8000 becomes part of a set of building blocks that

can have a computet and supporting software up
and running in a much shorter time than would have
been the case with the eighl-bil wonders of the past.

Four Flavors

As previously mentioned, the 68000 comes in differ-
ent flavors — four to be exact. The 68008 is simply a
68000 that talks to its memory over an eighl-bil bus,
ju.st like any "archaic" eighl-bil mpu. This is achieved at
a small price lo speed, because memory is only read at
half (he "width" of tile 68000. The 68010 is a slightly
enhanced (58000. It has a couple of extra opcodes that
enable it to deal with multi-user environments, and it
can run slightly faster, lire 68020 is the big daddy of
them all. Not only does it have the capabilities of the
68010, but it talks lo memory over a 32-bil bus, thus
giving it twice the bandwidth of the 68000. This ex-
plains the claim thai the 68000 heralds the beginning
of the 32-bit era: Leant to use the 68000 and you will
automatically be able to use the 68020; you will have
leapt from eight to \V1 bits in a single bound.

Graphics Processing

In its rich instruction set. the 68000 allows transfers
of data to be made lo and fro between registers inside
the chip and memory outside; or, register to register
and even memory to memory. The ability to transfer
data in so many diverse modes becomes especially im-
portant in a graphics-oriented machine such as the
Amiga.

Graphics processing in micros has always been a
problem in the past because a graphics image is always
represented by lots and lots of bits in memory. Lots of
bits inevitably add up to lots of bytes, so manipulation
of an image translates into manipulation of many bytes
in memory. This is where the 68000's data-handling ca-
pabilities provide some incredible power. Not only can
it handle data in byte-size eight-bit chunks, but it can
deal with words of 16 bits in length or long words of 32
bits. The fact llial it can swallow 32 bits in a single gulp
means that in one single instruction, the 68000 can Ilex
four limes more muscle than the equivalent instruction
on an eight-bit microprocessor. And that's not taking
into account a faster overall speed.

To stay abreast of (and, at the moment, ahead of)
their competition, Commodore had little choice other
than to go with a I libit device to support fast color
graphics. As other manufacturers (who shall remain
nameless) also picked the 68000 for the very same rea-
sons, Commodore seems to have been preceded by
their industry peers as far as making the wisest deci-
sion. And as there are already many implementations
of graphics software written for the 68000, anybody
who has these libraries available to them is spared
some of the development headaches in achieving the
best from the machine.

Some of this software is certain to reach l he Amiga
market, so we can be assured of the early appearance
of some fast and exciting graphics software for the
machine. This will no doubt include 3-1) image manipu-
lation, as well as picture processing via a video input.

Within 12 months, many Amiga owners will not only
be storing family data on their microcomputers, but
they'll also be storing the lauiilv photo archive. This

78 Premiere 19 tS5

means being able to draw a convincing mustache on
your moihi-i inlaw, as well as retouching more impor-
tant photographs or video images.

The whole scenario of image processing is suddenly
going to become available lo the hobbyist. Previously,
image processing on a realistic level was simply not
accessible due to the lack of power of eight-bit proces-
sors. Now, with a little ingenuity, hobbyists are likely to
be inspired to produce some real works of an. '["he im-
age processing involved won't be much easier because
ol the 68000, but it will be fast and impressive enough
to be worthwhile. (Watch out for a programmer named
Paul Lutus; he did some pretty fancy graphics on eight-
bit machines. He'll have a field day with the Amiga.)

A Workhorse

This is all made possible thanks to that 16-bit work-
horse, the 68000. Without getting too technical, let me
just point out that il has 17 internal registers. Of these,
15 are used on a regular basis. And I'm not talking Hi
bits now — each register is 32 bits long. This means the
68000 can hold a graphics image of 15 x 32, or 480
bits. This 15-register's worth of image can be zapped
into or out of video memory in a startling 7.5 mil-
lionth* of a second. This gives you a good idea of win-
it's the closest tiling yet to a mainframe processor in a
microchip.

The (580(H), because of this power and acceptance
within the industry, represents stability and a new
beginning within the microcomputer industry that was
only hinted at with the Z-80. Commodore couldn't have
chosen better. If, as an eight-bit programmer, you've
been putting off your entry into 16-bit processing, the
Amiga represents your big chance. If the only thing you
,tC(|uite is a working knowledge of the 68000, you'll be
set for at least the next five years in the microcomputer
business as a whole. You'll not only be up and running
with experience in a 16-bit environment, but you'll also
be ready for 32 bits. As the price of the 68020 comes
down, it will finally cause even 16 bits to go the way of
eight hits. And it doesn't take a great stretch of the
imagination to see that the price of microprocessors
makes this a certainty.

Facts and Figures

If you're interested in a couple of facts and figures
about the 68000, you'll he interested to know that it
can access 16 megabytes of memory. Compare this in
everyday language with the 6502, which drove the PET,
the VTC-20 and the Commodore 64. Whereas the 6502
could address 65.536 bytes of memory, the 68000 can
address 16,777,216! This is enough to run the average
spreadsheet, database and word processing file all at
the same time-, with some room to spare. It's also the
same addressing range that is available on a measlv
IBM 370!

Jusl in case owning an Amiga makes you feel loo
smug, though, let me tell you that the 68020 can access
lour gigabytes of memory. Now let me see. . .that's two
multiplied by itself 32 times. The batteries in mv calcu-
lator are due for replacement soon. I think I'll let you
work out the final figure yourself. I

Circle 31 on Reader Service card.

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with powerful time saving utilities like make and vi, and
because Manx Software Systems provides timely technical
support.

NATIVE AND CROSS DEVELOPMENT

Manx Aztec C Software Development Systems are avail-
able as cross and native development systems. Manx Soft-
ware Systems has provided C cross development systems
since 1980. No other C cross development system offers the
complete, professional cross development environment pro-
vided by Manx. Every cross development system includes the
optimized Aztec C compiler, an assembler, linkage editor, an
object file librarian, a full set of UNIX and general utility
libraries, and in some environments, such as MS-DOS and
the Apple Macintosh, an array of time saving UNIX utilities
like make, diff, and vi.

MULTIPLE LEVELS

Manx also provides different levels of Aztec C to meet the
different demands and budgets of a wide range of software
developers. The commercial system, Manx Aztec C-c, in-
cludes an optimized C compiler, assembler, linker, object
librarian, general library routines, library source, and extend-
ed library and utility routines. The developer's system, Manx
Aztec C-d, includes an optimized C compiler, assembler,
linker, object librarian, and general library routines. The per-
sonal system, Manx Aztec C-p, includes a less optimized C
compiler, does not have an assembler, and has fewer library
and utility routines. Each system is unbeatable for price-
performance. Each system is upgradable.

Prices:

Manx Aztec C68k/Am-c $499

Manx Aztec C68k/Am-d $299

Manx Aztec C68k/Am-p $199

Manx Aztec MS-DOS to C68k/Am Cross . . . S500
lb order or for information call 1-800-221-0440,
1-800-TEC WARE, or 201-530-7997. Orders can be payed
via check, COD, VISA, MASTER CARD, American Express,
or net 30 to qualified customers.

Portability: Manx Aztec C is also available for the Macin-
tosh, MS-DOS, CP/M-86, CP/M-80, APPLE D, TRS-80. and
Commodore 64/128.

AmigaWorld 79

Circle 16 on Reader Service card.

MetacomcQ,
The real alternative

Metacomco is proud to have been closely
involved in the creation of the Amiga™

In less than six months, Metacomco devel-
oped AmigaDOS™ with Commodore-Amiga,and
provided several major languages and software
components for the new computer, including:

ABasiC™

ISO Pascal

Cambridge Lisp™

Macro Assembler

Linker

UNIX™ and MSDOS™ cross development systems.

Metacomco is a specialist supplier of systems
software for 68000 based computers, providing a
range of languages, operating systems, and utilities.

Metacomco: the real alternative for computer
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SOFTWARE FOR THE 68000

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80 Premiere 1985

The Amiga as a
Teaching Tool

By Guy Wright

With its versatility, speed and power, the
Amiga will enhance and enliven the
learning process for a new generation of
students — and not just in the classroom.

If you read the proj
about the future of personal
will notice that the trends indicate people
will be playing fewer games and devoting
more time to business, personal productivity,
"expert" systems and educational applica-
tions. It can be argued that the Amiga com-
puter is ideal for each of these applications,
and some of the other articles in this issue of
AmigaWorld have explored the ways that the
computer can be used in these areas. This ar-
ticle will focus on education, pointing out
some traditional — and some not-so-tradi-
tional— ways that the Amiga will be used as a
teaching tool.

AmigaWorld HI

When most people hear the term "educational soft-
ware." they think of a first-grader sitting in front of a
school computer solving simple arithmetic problems or
guessing the names of state capitals. They think of drill
and practice, for the most part, and when you look at
the majority of the educational software out there for
the various computer systems, drill and practice is what
you find. There are some companies producing educa-
tional software of a more interesting nature, and a few
companies are marketing some very good programs,
but most of the software in this genre is less than
impressive. Children in schools learn more by trying to
break into the programs so they can cheat than they do
by running the programs and following instructions.

There are a number of reasons why the educational
software in existence today is so weak. A primary rea-
son is that educational software is not as profitable for
a manufacturer as business or entertainment software.
One software developer and distributor said that he
had dropped his entire line of educational software
because the home market was too small, and selling to
school systems was a nightmare. As he put it, "School
systems are probably the worst software pirates out
there. They usually only buy one program and then
copy it for each computer lab, then the teachers make
copies and the students make copies, and before long,
there are dozens of copies of the program floating
around. While all this is happening, 1 am waiting for
the si liool board's approval of the original check. It's
like selling them a driver's ed film. You know that it is
going to be shown over and over and over again for
years to come, but you only get paid for one copy."

Software companies make their profits on volume
sales, and schools are notoriously money conscious
when it comes to new ideas. Most computer depart-
ments spend the little money they have on hardware
rather than on software.

Another reason why good educational software is
lacking is that the people writing the software are using
old methods with a new technology. Few software devel-
opers have made use of the interactive capabilities of
the computer. Typing tutor programs are the major
exception to this; they are an example of how the com-
puter can be used to teach a valuable skill more effec-
tively than a teacher in a classroom (especially if the
program is done well).

The Future

So, educational software is in a dreadful state. What
does this have to do with the Amiga computer? The
Amiga should encourage advancement of educational
software art in ways that other computers cannot. The
Amiga will put powerful computing, ease of use and
features found in no other personal computer into the
hands of not only software companies, but also thou-
sands of users. Many will now have the tools to develop
sophisticated software of their own without having to
learn assembly language to get the speed and special
effects they want. The Amiga from Commodore should

change the way that we think about educational soft-
ware. Combined with some of the newer technological
breakthroughs, such as CD-ROMs, all the predictions
about the future may not be as bleak as drill and prac-
tice, drill and practice, drill and practice.

Why is the Amiga going to be any different from any
other computer in influencing the wav computers are used
for learning? The Amiga's features are going to lend them-
selves to software changes in all areas. The Amiga User
Interface is going to make using any program easier and
more "self-documenting." As far as I know, there are very-
few people who think that software ought to be harder,
rather than easier, to learn how to use, and as one other
famous computer has shown, the mouse and menu system
can be much more efficient than banging away at a key-
board. So, learning how to use software will be easier — for
business, home and educational purposes. The mouse and
menu system of getting information into the Amiga will be
much easier for children and adults who have not yet
learned to type.

Sights and Sounds

It is easy to see how the sound and graphics capabili-
ties of the Amiga can be used to enhance even the most
tedious programs, taking a simple tunc played as a
reward a few steps further. With the MIDI interface and
some of the innovative software that is coming out for
music and sound, the Amiga is an ideal computer for
teaching music in universities, high schools or any
other grade level. From the fundamentals of music the-
ory and scoring to sight reading and band practice. The
Amiga will be a valuable teacher for anyone who always
wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument, but
for one reason or another, didn't wish to hire a private-
tutor or take lessons. The advances in computer/music
interfacing do not limit the instruments to keyboards
or synthesizers, either. Audio input devices now let you
play almost any instrument into the Amiga, from gui-
tars to flutes. The music and sound capabilities of the
Amiga, as creative tools, will also influence film, video
and even drama departments.

The graphics capabilities of the Amiga will not only
brighten a standard display, but with easy and fast ani-
mation, a student can see results in real time. High res-
olution and multiple colors will give more meaning to
images, leaving block-graphics pictures far behind.
Learning mechanical drawing will not be a lifelong
career.

Animated, high-resolution color representations of
machinery, tools, circuits or most anything, combined
with mouse-driven software, should cut hours off train-
ing time, which means that businesses and manufactur-
ing plants will be looking for a new kind of educational
software. It is easy to imagine a line of business train-
ing software with titles like "How to Organize a Meet-
ing," "How to Use a Spreadsheet," "How to Write a
Business Letter," "How to Compile a Profit and Loss
Statement," "How to Plan a Marketing Campaign," etc.
Just about anything that is taught in a business school
could be brought to the Amiga in one form or another,
and with so many opportunities for selling to business,
it won't be long before software companies start to
announce "business education" software.

H2 Premiere 1985

The built-in, software-driven speech synthesis capabil-
ities of the Amiga are ideal for teaching languages and
reading. There have been programs that have tried to
use speech synthesis as a key to learning, but their
advance has been hampered by the extra costs involved
with hardware add-on synthesizers or unintelligible soft-
ware-driven synthesizers that try to make the computer
do something that it wasn't designed to do. The Amiga
was designed to reproduce an extremely wide range of
sounds and human voices; it's not child's play, but it's
easily within the machine's capabilities.

New Technology

These things are only the start. CD-ROM (Compact
Disk-Read Only Memory) is a technological advance
that will no doubt find its way to the Amiga. At a
recent electronics show, spectators were treated to a
demonstration of a CD-ROM plaver that contained an
entire encyclopedia on one nearly indestructible com-
pact disk. No one has to explain the educational value
of an encyclopedia, but imagine an encyclopedia, with
pictures, fitting inside a 5'/," diskette jacket, which can
be accessed in moments. Combine this with a software
"course" designed to lead you through a series of the
encyclopedia's entries in a logical order and you have a
teaching tool like no other.

CD-ROM leads to other teaching tools that the Amiga
not only supports, but encourages — interactive video
and simulations with a new level of realism. The first
interactive videos were presented to the public in the
form of video arcade games. One of the first was a
graphics cartoon adventure where the player could con-
trol the action to varying degrees. The system worked
by using the rapid video access of a laser disk player.
Various screens were animated and recorded on the
laser disk, and depending upon what the player
selected, the software controlling the game would jump
to that section of the disk in a second or two. There
was stilt a very noticeable delay between action and dis-
play of the results, but it was effective enough for one
major car manufacturer to use the system not to slash
dragons, but to train assembly line workers, using a
program where this delay was not critical. On a laser
disk, they put real video images of auto parts in every
imaginable configuration. The software was designed to
train the employee not only how to do things correctly,
but also to show them what would happen if they did
things incorrectly.

The costs involved in making your own laser disk are
still prohibitive, but the Amiga, with gen-locking hard-
ware, will be laser-disk compatible right out of the box.
When read/write or write-once laser technology arrives
(and this is only months, not years, away), interactive
video will be in the hands of everyone owning an
Amiga computer. A program that teaches users about
the Renaissance artists will bring up video images of
their paintings, highlight brush strokes or important
features, then bounce around the video disk and quiz
you about each one, letting you go backward or for-
ward, zoom in, study or just browse through the paint-
ings at will.

At the heart of the Amiga is a very powerful 68000
chip that can perform complex mathematical opera-
tions better than almost any other personal computer.

With its multi-tasking abilities and a hard disk, the
Amiga will be an ideal computer for setting up a school
LAN (Local Area Network). For the serious engineering,
physics or mathematics student, the Amiga will be invalu-
able, regardless of the commercial software available.
Computer science students? They won't need any
convincing.

The Best for Last

The Amiga will be a key in the future of educational
software because of the people who own the machine.
The versatility, speed, interfacing capabilities, custom
chips, user interface and ease of programming are all
going to combine to give even the most casual Sunday
programmer the tools of a high-power software devel-
oper. (Of course, this means that high-power software-
developers are going to have tools that no other devel-
opers have ever had before.) What would take an expe-
rienced assembly language programmer months to
accomplish on any other machine can be done quickly
on the Amiga using Basic or Pascal. The graphics,
sound and animation, being hardware-driven, do not
depend on a lot of fancy programming skills. With
sophisticated techniques available to those with less-
thansophisticated skills, more and more people will
have a computer that will let them write the kind of
software that they always wanted to write, but didn't
have the knuwledge of programming to accomplish.
Managers with a little computer experience will be able
to write tutorial programs for new employees, parents
will be able to write educational programs for their
children, teachers will be able to write courseware for
any grade level, and the "real" educational software
writers will be able to go a lot further than they could
ever go before.

If nothing else, educational software will become
more and more sophisticated as time goes on, and it
will have to run on whatever computer is current and
capable. 'The Amiga is, without doubt, capable of han-
dling whatever a programmer can come up with, and it
is a sure bet that the Amiga will be around for a long,
long time.

The concept of software in education is not just a
child doing number problems on a computer in a class-
room— it is an office worker polishing his skills, an
assembly-line worker learning how to operate a new
machine, an art department offering "computer paint-
ing" courses, a businessperson learning a few new
tricks of the trade, a grad student learning about the
universe, a musician learning a new instrument, a trav-
eler learning a new language, a junior-high student
learning how to type and a journalist learning the capi-
tals of the states.

GSW

Address all author correspondence to Guy Wright, do
AmigaWorld editorial, 80 Pine St., Peterborough, NH 03458.

<*^y

^*-mtf

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Circle 32 on Reader Service card

MARE YOUR

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The AMIGA From Commodore

Now Available At The 64 STORE

CPU-Motorola 68000 (16/32 bit) COLOR VIDEO

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COMING SOON!

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Your originality

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If you can

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THE PRINT SHOP

The perfect way to express yourself
with your new Amiga:

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Everybody's
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The program
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Everything
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pictures and
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Think what
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Circle 20 on Reader Service card.

By Swain Pratt

Help Key is a feature that will seek to pro-
vide answers to those questions about the
Amiga computer that new users or other inter-
ested computerists are most likely to ask. The
answers will be forthcoming, at least initially,
from members of the staff that developed this
new computer. Rob Peck, Director of Descrip-
tive and Graphic Arts at Commodore-Amiga,
answered the questions in this first installment.
If you have questions about the Amiga that you
don't find covered here or in other articles in
AmigaWorld, send them in to AmigaWorld
editorial, 80 Pine St., Peterborough, NH
03458, and we'll do our best to give you satis-
factory answers.

Q: Hovt can the Amiga be described
in broad general terms?
A: The Amiga persona! com-
puter is a high-performance,
low-cost system, with advanced
graphics and sound features.
Wc call it the world's first per-
sonal supermicro. That's a
strong statement, but it's sub-
stantiated by the Amiga's
capabilities,

Q: How many people were centrally in-
volved with the development of the
Amiga?

A: The core of the development
staff consisted of about 25 to 30
people, working for nearly two
years.

Q: What central processing unit was
chosen/or the Amiga?
A: The 7.8 MHz Motorola
68000 — one of the most efficient
and powerful CPUs that exist for
microcomputers, and one particu-
larly suited for graphic-intensive
applications.

Q: Please describe the Amiga's mem-
ory capacity. Can users add external
RAM?

A: There are 256K of internal
RAM, and users can add on an-
other 256K, using a clip-in car-
tridge, bringing the total
presently possible to 51 2K,
within a contiguous address
space of 16 megabytes. Addi-
tional external expansion be-
yond 512K, up to 8 megabytes,
is possible, and outside vendors
are currently working on ex-
panded memory multifunction
cards. There are 192K of ROM,
containing a real-time, multi-
tasking operating system with
sound, graphics and animation-
support routines.

Q: The Amiga has a built-in disk drive.
What are the details about this device?
A: It is a built-in, 3|/,-inch dou-
ble-sided, double-density drive.
The disks are 80-track, format-
ted as 1 1 sectors per track, with
512 bytes per sector, giving a
total of 880K bytes per disk.

Q: Can other disk drives be con-
nected to the Amiga?
A: Yes; there is provision for
connecting up to three addi-
tional drives, which may be
double-sided, using either 3%-
or 5/,-inch floppies.

Q: Is it possible to connect with a
hard-dish unit?

A: The hardware and software fea-
tures of the Amiga fully support
hard clisk and tape backup units.

Q: Please describe the Amiga's key-
board. Will it be possible to connect
a non-Amiga keyboard?
A: The keyboard is detached,
with 89 keys, calculator pad,
function and cursor keys. The
information about the keyboard
output for each of the key-
strokes is provided, and if some
other manufacturer wanted to
produce a more enhanced key-
board with all the Amiga func-
tions on it, I think we would
certainly provide all the details
necessary for such a connection.
As far as I am aware, however,
there is no non-Amiga keyboard
in the works for this machine.

Q: Can you use a cassette recorder to
save and load programs?
A: NTo, this is not a capability of
the Amiga. You can, of course, use
a cassette recorder for recording
the sounds an Amiga makes.

Q What about compatibility of var-
ious modems with the Amiga?
A: Any standard RS-232 modem
should work with the machine.
There will be information in
the manual that will indicate
which pin of the Serial port is
appropriate. We know for cer-

tain that the Commodore-
Amiga, Hayes SmartModem and
Tecmar 2400-baud modem will
work. In any case, the wiring
connections will appear in the
back of the manual.

Q: How do you connect the Amiga to
a stereo system?

A: On the back of the machine
are two ports — audio jacks — for
output to the left and right
stereo channels from four spe-
cial-purpose audio channels.

Q: Can I hook the Amiga up to a
video tape recorder?
A: The output of the Amiga is
compatible with XTSC (Na-
tional Televison Standard Con-
vention) signals, which means it
should be perfectly at home
with your standard video re-
corder. There are ports for si-
multaneous XTSC composite
video and for analog or digital
RTV output. In addition to
these connections, the system
can be expanded to include a
VCR or camera interface. The
system is also capable of syn-
chronizing with an external
video source and replacing the
system background color with
(he external image. This allows
for the development of fully-in-
tegrated video images with com-
puter-generated graphics. Laser-
disk input is accepted in the
same manner. This indicates,
for example, that you should be
able to connect your Amiga in
series with your videotape or
your camera and use the com-
puter in combination with these
accessories.

86 Premiere 1 9S5

^AfTGsi

<i.

--1

i i-

L O

Introducing

Amiga Draw !

A Drafting and Design Tool for the Commodore Amiga

Aegis Development, Inc. brings
creativity to your fingertips! Use
Amiga Draw to create accurate and
detailed drawings of anything your
mind can imagine and then transfer
those images to plotters, printers, and
other output devices. Amiga Draw
was designed specifically for the Amiga
and takes advantage of all the unique
and powerful graphics capabilities that
make this computer so special. You
can work on several drawings at the
same time using different windows.
You may zoom in on an image, or
open a new window to observe detail
while keeping the overall view of the
drawing. Accuracy for the drawing is
within +/-2,000,000,000 points! Flex-
ible? Sure! Mark an image and store it
- or delete it, scale it, rotate it, what-
ever! Amiga Draw puts you in charge.

Amiga Draw also supports layer-

Clrcle 12 on Reader Service card.

ing of a drawing — You may break up
a drawing into various components
allowing all or selected pieces of the
layers to appear. A house plan can be
broken into electrical, plumbing, and
structural layers. The layers can appear
in different colors, overriding the
colors of the individual graphic ele-
ments.

Mouse, Keyboard, or Tablet input
with pull down menus is provided.
Amiga Draw allows you to set the
physical scale for the output device,
and create scaled drawings for architec-
ture, engineering, and charts. Plotting
can occur in background mode allow-
ing you to keep working on another
drawing. Plotters from HP, Epson,
Comrex, and others are supported.

Mistakes? Accidental deletion can
be reversed using the UNDO function.
Expand your creativity by passing your

Amiga Draw image into a paint
system to add flare and solid image
fills.

So, if you're serious about your
Commodore computer, don't you
think you owe it to yourself to get the
most out of it? With Amiga Draw,
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For the dealer nearest you, call
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EpM.in it a traiitTTwk uf £f>on America

Q; What languages are built intn the
A miga — or plan net! far the future?
A: A version of Basic is bundled
with the machine. Other lan-
guages that will work with the
Amiga are Logo, Pascal, C and
Assembler.

Q: Is the A miga compatible with any
other computer's hardware or
software?

A: At the moment, the machine
is unique. I can't go into the de-
tails here, but we are examining
issues of compatibility with cer-
tain other levels of software and
certain other types of operating
systems. At this point, however,
the Amiga runs the custom op-
erating system and will do so
for the foreseeable future.

Q: What sort of RS-232 output does
the Amiga have?
A: You can set it up for just
about anything you might want.
The connections are specified
on the back. We will have a
"preferences tool" that will
come up under our Workbench
program that will allow you to
properly configure your Serial
port for printers. We can sup-
port up to 19,200 baud as far as
the transmission is concerned,
and potentially even higher
than that, if necessary. 31,500
baud is, I think, the top, but
19,200 is the maximum stan-
dard one might consider.

Q: What ports are available on the
Amiga for connecting peripherals?
A: There's a fully-programmable
Serial port that will allow, as
I've mentioned, baud rates up
to over 31,000; a parallel port,
also full)' programmable, that's
normally configured for Cen-
tronics parallel printer output,
but that also can be used as a
high-speed parallel input port;
two reconfigurablc controller
ports for connecting a mouse.
joysticks, light pen, digitizer tab-
let or paddles; an expansion

port with full access to the
68000 bus for adding such ac-
cessories as RAM and additional
floppy or hard-disk drives; and
then the ports for composite
video, a second floppy-disk
port, RGB and audio output.

Q: The Amiga's graphics capabilities
are reputed to be extraordinary.
What are the details about these
great graphics?

A: The reason for the truly fine
graphics is that we have three
custom VLSI circuits to provide
the graphics — and sound — while
still allowing the main proces-
sor to run at full speed most of
the time. This special-purpose
hardware gives you the follow-
ing features.

The Amiga produces bit-
plane-generated, high-resolution
graphics, typically producing a
320x200 non-interlaced dis-
play, or 320 x 400 interlaced, in
32 colors, and a 640 X 200 or
640x400 display in 16 colors. A
special Low-resolution mode is
also available that allows you i<)
have 4,096 colors onscreen
simultaneously.

This custom hardware also in-
cludes a custom-display co-pro-
cessor that permits changes to
any of the system's special-pur-
pose registers in synchroniza-
tion with the movement of the
video beam. This allows special
effects such as mid-screen
changes to the color palette,
splitting the screen into multi-
ple horizontal slices, each hav-
ing different video resolutions.
The co-processor can trigger
many times per screen, both at
the beginning of lines and dur-
ing the blanking interval. The
co-processor itself can directly
affect all the registers of the
special-purpose hardware, thus
freeing the 68000 for other gen-
eral-purpose computing tasks.

The special-purpose hardware
embodies 32 color registers,
each of which contains a 12-bit
number that is split into four
bits of red, four of green and
four of blue intensity informa-

tion. This allows the system
4.096 different choices of color
for each register. Although an
RGB monitor provides the best
available output for the system
graphics, the N'TSC signal has
been carefully designed to pro-
vide maximum N'TSC compati-
bility. The signal may be
videotaped or fed to a standard
composite video monitor.

As for sprites, we have eight
reusable 16-bit-wide sprites, with
up to 15 color choices per
sprite-pixel element when
sprites are paired, or up to four
choices per pixel element when
sprites arc used individually.
The background on which the
sprites move independently is
called the playing Field, and the
sprites can be displayed either
over or under this background.
The sprite is a low-resolution,
16-pixcl-wide object that is an
arbitrary number of lines tall.

After producing the last line
of the sprite on the screen, a
sprite processor may be used to
produce yet another sprite im-
age elsewhere on the screen.
Thus, you can create many,
many small sprites by simply
reusing the sprite processor as
appropriate.

The system hardware also
provides dynamically controlla-
ble inter-object priority. This
means that the system can con-
trol video priority between the
sprite object and the back-
ground on the playing field.
You can determine which object
appears on top at any given
time, as well as sensing colli-
sions between objects or be-
tween the object and the
playing field.

There is also a custom bit-blit-
ter for high-speed data move-
ment, adaptable to bit-playing
animation. The blitter is de-
signed to efficiently receive data
from up to three sources, com-
bine the data in one of 256 dif-
ferent wavs and optionally store
the design data in a destination
area. The bitblitter has a spe-
cial mode in which it can draw
patterned lines into a rectangu-
larly organized memory region
at a speed of about one million
dots per second.

Q: How can users get a detailed de-
scription of the inner workings of
the Amiga? Will a hardware man-
ual be available?

A: The hardware manual will be
available at or close to the re-
lease date of the machine. The
same information that has been
distributed to our developers
will for the most part be avail-
able to users. This includes a
hardware manual and a descrip-
tion of the operating system's
ROM Kernal routine.

Q: Is it possible to damage the
Amiga by typing in anything incor-
rectly, by turning things on or off in
the wrong sequence or by plugging
in peripherals with the power on?
A: No, you can't damage the
Amiga by typing errors or by
switching things on or off in the
wrong sequence. It is acceptable
to plug in joysticks, a mouse or
other peripherals with the
power on, but we advise that
you play it safe by plugging in
peripherals with the power off.
It's a good practice.

Q: How often is it advisable to clean
the disk drive? And how is it best done?
A: Whatever is generally recom-
mended as cleaning intervals —
maybe once a month, unless
there is very heavy usage. Get a
good disk-cleaning kit for a Sc-
inch drive.

Q: Is it safe to take the disks
through X-ray machines in airports?
A: Yes.

Address all author correspon-
dence to Swain Pratt, c/o
AmigaWorld editorial, 80 Pine St.,
Peterborough, NH 03458.

SS Premiere 1985

ConmtulationsTbThe

New Owners Of Amiga;

The Newest Generation

In Hardware.

From Activision:
The Next Generation In Home Computer Software.

For new product information call 1-800-633-4263. In California call 415-940-6044/5 (weekdays).

uy * j ir*drtii*rk^G«i-J!»^JoieAru6iiIrc. t" 1965 Aans»n.liK

ACTIVISION

HOME COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Circle 25 on Reader Service card.

list of Software

Program

Description

Developer

Publisher

Release
Date

Amiga Assembler

Development tools, including macro
assembler, linkage editor and overlay
editor for the software community

Metacomco

Commodore-
Amiga

Chartcraft

Powerful business graphics package
for charts and graphs. Produces 3-D,
shaded, exploded and expanded
graphs, plus a variety of special effects
for business presentations

Island Graphics

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch*

Amiga LISP
Amiga Pascal

Programming languages

Metacomco^i

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

Graphicrajl

Entry level, but powerful paint
program, giving user control over
Amiga's graphics capabilities

Island Graphics

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

Paintcrafi

Professional level graphics and
art production program

Island Graphics

Commodore-
Amiga

Oct. '83

Oct. '85

Videocraft

Advanced animation effects; ad

image-manipulation program using
icons and pull-down menus for easy
and rapid implementation

Island Graphics

Commodore

Amiga

Textcraft

Powerful entry level word processor
stressing ease of use, on-screen
documentation and templates for
business letters, memos, etc.

Arktronics

Commodore-

Launch

Musicrafi

Amiga '

Entry level program featuring the
Amiga's advanced sound systems and
capabilities

Everyware

Commodore-
Amiga

68000 C language compiler for
Amiga software development in C,
a language popular because
of its power and portability

Lattice

Commodore-
Amiga

Oct. '85

Launch

General Isdger Small business programs from the

Accts Receivable popular Rags to Riches series,
Accts Payable featuring on-screen documentation, a

Sales common command set and the ability

to swap data between programs

Chang

Laboratories

Commodore-
Amiga

Amiga TLC Logo

Enhanced adaptation for the Amiga
of the TLC-Logo programming
language for educational applications

The Lisp Co.

Commodore-
Amiga

Oct. '85

Telecraft

Easy to use but sophisticated
communications and terminal
emulation package

Software 66

Commodore-
Amiga

Amiga Harmony

Professional sound synthesis and Cherry Lane Commodore-

music program from a leading music Technologies Amiga

publisher

Oct. '85

Sept. '85

90 Premiere 1985

Program

Description

Developer

Publisher

Release
Date

Flight Simulator State-of-the-art flight simulation

program using the Amiga's advanced
graphics animation and sound

Bruce Artwick

SynCalc

Mutant

Enable

Enable/DB

AmigaDOS

ABasiC

Commodore-
Amiga

Jan. '86

Sophisticated and multi-featured Synapse/Borland Commodore- Nov. '85

spreadsheet program; data compatible Amiga ^^k

with VisiCalc ^fl

Strategy' arcade game

Synapse

Commodore-
Amiga

Nov. '85

Highly acclaimed second-generation
integrated package with word
processor, spreadsheet, database,
telecommunications and graphics

The Software
Group

Commodore-
Amiga/
Software Group

Nov. '85

Enable/Write Advanced word processing program The Software

for professional users; a module of Group
the Enable package _^y

Commodore- Launch

Amiga/

Software Group

Enable/Calc Advanced spreadsheet program for

professional users; a module of the
Enable package. Allows data
compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3
(including Lotus macros), dBase II
and VisiCalc fr-A

The Software
Group

Commodore- Oct. '85

Amiga/Software

Group

Advanced database program for
professional uses; a module of the
Enable package

The Software
Group

Commodore- Nov, '85

Amiga/Software

Group

BUNDLED WITH THE AMIGA

Operating system

Commodore
Amiga

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

Tutorial Text and graphics program Mindscape

introducing features of the Amiga

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

Powerful basic programming
language with advanced features,
such as multiple windows for
editing and debugging

Microsoft

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

Amigascope Rolling demo program featuring the Electronic Arts Commodore-

graphics capabilities of the Amiga Amiga

Launch

Speechcraft Speech program with user-definable

parameters (male-female voices, etc.)
allowing unlimited text-to-speech
conversion

Softvoice

Commodore-
Amiga

Launch

^Scheduled for release on or before the Amiga's launch date.

AmigaWorld 91

Do you have what
it takes?

Are you good enough?
Can you put your
thoughts into words
that sing?

aES3SEH3IHlK

We are looking for the
best, the very best, and for
the most part, nothing but
the best articles for publica-
tion in AmigaWorid. Articles
that would make your mother
proud. Articles about the
Amiga, of course. What it can
do, where it can take you,
where it is going, and just
what is a blitter anyway? An-
swer an important question
about the Amiga in clear, un-
derstandable, human terms,
or address something trivial in
an elegant way. People ex-
pect amazing things from

their Amigas, and we expect
nothing less from our authors.
We have the highest edito-
rial standards money can
buy, and we are willing to
pay real, honest-to-goodness
cash for just about anything
that furthers our reputation
as the ultimate authority on
the Amiga computer. If you
think that you know some-
thing better than the next fel-
low, then prove it to us and
yourself. Put it down on
clean, white paper, double-
spaced with a new ribbon.
Then go back, clean up the
spelling and grammatical er-
rors, retype it and send it
in to:

AmigaWorid
Submissions
80 Pine St.
Peterborough, NH 03458

We are tough, we are
hard, and we would like to
believe that you. . .yes
you. . .have something to say
about the Amiga computer
that will astound our editors
and impress our readers. If
you think that you have what
it takes to survive those
grueling 6 to 8 weeks while
we tear your article to
shreds, then by all means,
go for it. Just be sure to in-
clude a self-addressed,
stamped envelope so we'll
know where to send the re-
mains. Then again, if you
aren't that sure of yourself
yet, you can always send for
a copy of our author's
guidelines first. In fact, that
might be the best idea. That
way you won't have to guess
what our standards are.

And those few, outstand-
ing writers who earn our
stamp of approval can stand
tall, knowing that they are
among the few, the chosen,
the best— they are the
AmigaWorid Authors!

STUDS HATCHED!

BIG DEAL

Wanna see HOW big a deal? We've all
seen the old Logos — all seasoning and no
substance, cute graphics, but not much
else. *

Then there's the inscrutable LISP — all
meat and no potatoes. Perfect for eggheads
and carnivores in Artificial Intelligence
work, but for us regular folks, forget it!
And Yesterday's machines? Old gym socks
were more powerful.

So, who could keep the best, sink the rest
and create a language worthy of your at-
tention? Who else but THE LISP
COMPANY (TLC), and our
TLC™- LOGO. THE Logo for the /
AMIGA PC.

"How powerful is it?" you ask. It goes
beyond our popular companion book
"THINKING ABOUT TLC™-
LOGO," beyond the idea
of computer learning as
hard and boring, be-
yond bad puns.

You start with a turtle named
STUDS. Use him to draw pretty
pictures, or to explore mathe-
matics from simple functions
to calculus. Want more turtles?
Hatch'em and ask'em to perform.
Your wish is their command.
Want them to cooperate

with each other?

* except ours, of course

TLC™- LOGO'S multi-turtle operations
reduce multi- processing to child's
play — or adult's. STUDS isn't picky.

LOGO WITH A SLIGHT LISP

TLC" LOGO — THE POWER OF LISP
WITH SIMPLE SYNTAX

You can build more objects and ask them
to perform, too. Objects are built from
descriptions, and they in turn are built
from a cornucopia of components — num-
bers, lists, vectors, functions, even other
descriptions — all of the building blocks
that a modern LISP dialect is expected to
have. Yes, brains and beauty, too!

And TLC" LOGO IS a modern LISP
dialect, designed and built by
a team with over 30 years
experience in the folklore of
LISP-Iike languages. Thanks
to the power of the AMIGA
PC, no compromises were
required in this new TLC"
LOGO. This is a general pur-
pose language seductive
enough to make it interest-
ing, powerful enough to
make it worthwhile. Three
key ingredients

• the power of the
AMIGA machine

• the graphics and easy
use of TLC -LOGO

• the 1 st class functional
semantics of LISP

combine to tickle your

creative streak. But you

know and we know that

the key to successful software is in the
documentation. Besides our "THINKING
ABOUT TLC™ LOGO" book, we're in-
cluding a gargantuan helping of tutorials,
primers, examples and reference manuals.
Even more support material is incubating.

So big deal . . . who needs another Logo?
This isn't just another Logo, another weak
introductory graphics language. TLC™-
LOGO is faithful to its LISP roots, gracefully
integrating what's been learned about
LISP-Iike languages in the past 20 years,
delicately (?) seasoned with notions from
object-oriented programming, and boast-
ing an exterior tastefully decorated with
graffiti from turtle graphics and the best of
mouse-driven interaction. The result? A
^powerful, elegant language that can ex-
plore programming notions in graphics, in
general purpose applications, and in Ar-
tificial Intelligence. You can design your
own video delights, animate armies of
turtles and generally have a good time.

Now that IS a big deal.

So welcome the AMIGA PC and welcome
TLC™- LOGO — a language worth thinking

about

TLC" LOGO for the AMIGA

TLC-LOGO

IT IS A BIG DEAL

THE LISP CO. (TLC)

430 MONTEREY AVE. #4

LOS GATOS, CA 95030

(408) 354-3668

Circle 9 on Reader Service card.

If the space program had advanced as fast as

the computer industry

this might he

the view

from

your i

office.

« -

And space stations, Martian colonies, and interstellar probes
might already be commonplace. Does that sound outlandish? Then
bear these facts in mind:

In 1946 ENIAC was the scientific marvel of the day. This
computer weighed 30 tons, stood two stories high, covered
15,000 square feet, and cost $486,840.22 in 1946 dollars. Today
a $2,000 kneetop portable can add and subtract more than 20
times faster. And, by 1990. the average digital watch will have as
much computing power as ENIAC.

The collective brainpower of the computers sold in the next
two years will equal that of all the computers sold from the
beginning to now. Four years from now it will have doubled
again.

It's hard to remember that this is science fact, not fiction. How do
people keep pace with change like this? That's where we come in.
We're CW Communications/Inc— the world's largest publisher of
computer-related newspapers and magazines.

Every month over 9,000,000 people
read one or more of our publications

Nobody reaches more computer-involved people around the
world than we do. And nobody covers as many markets. In the
United States we publish three computer/business journals. Micro
Market world, for businesses selling small computers and software.
On Communications, the monthly publication covering the evolving
communications scene. And Computerworld, the newsweekly for the
computer community, which is the largest specialized business
publication of any kind in this country.

We also offer eight personal computer publications. InfoWorid,
the personal computer weekly, is a general interest magazine for all
personal computer users.

The other seven are monthly magazines that concentrate on
specific microcomputer systems. PC World, the comprehensive
guide to IBM personal computers and compatibles. inCider, the
Apple II journal. Macworld, the Macintosh magazine. 80 Micro, the
magazine for TRS-80 users. HOT CoCo, the magazine for TRS-80
Color Computer and MC-10 users. And RUN, the Commodore 64
& VIC-20 magazine. And one is bi-monthly. AmigaWorld, exploring
the Amiga from Commodore.

And we have similar publications in every major computer market
in the world. Our network of more than 55 periodicals serves over 25
countries. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark,
Finland. France. Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico,
The Netherlands, Norway, People's Republic of China, Saudi Ara-
bia, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom,
United States, Venezuela and West Germany.

The sooner we hear from you,
the sooner you'll hear from our readers

Simply put, we'll make it easy for you to reach your target
audience— and for them to reach you. Call today for more informa-
tion. You'll find the number below.

CW COMMUNICATIONS INC.

375 Cochituate Road, Box 880
Framingham MA 01701 (617) 879-0700

«M&

Blind dates and buying software
have a lot in common:

It's not always easy to spot a dog!

Icon Review™ welcomes the
Commodore Amiga™

We have labored into the wee hours exploring our new
Amigas and scouting for innovative software. We're excited!

Amiga Software HotList

So excited that we are working feverishly to compile an

up-to-date HotList of
outstanding Amiga software
that is available today. We
help you separate the win-
ners from the dogs.

Buy Direct

ICON REVIEW is a direct
marketing conduit supplying
software products to you, the
end user. ICON REVIEW
offers software shoppers the
convenience and low prices of
telemarketing/direct mail
together with accurate pro-
duct information and per-
sonalized service.

I'm Dennis Moncrief a fellow Amiga
enthusiast and a lough critic, it's my
intention to offer you the finest soft-
ware and accessories at rock bottom
prices. Call us today.

Amiga's Product Boom

Third party developers will soon be flooding the market
with all manner of exciting software and accessories for the
Amiga. ICON REVIEW will be there to help you benefit
from this new industry.

AmigaWare™

ICON REVIEW, in conjuntion with it's sister company,
MindWork Software, will be marketing its own line of

software for the Amiga under the
AmigaWare™ label.

Call Today — TOLL FREE

If you see a promising softwate
product, mentioned or advertised in
this issue of AmigaWorld, call us today.
We'll have an up-to-date product HotList
covering the quality products shipping now.
If it's currently available, chances are we'll have it in stock
at a close-to-incredible, low price.

Maximillian™ From Tardis Software

Maximillian is a breakthrough design in multi-tasking, integrated
software for the Amiga. Includes MaxiCalc, MaxiWord, MaxiGraph,
and MaxiTerm. Call for availability $175.

Also from Tardis — The Amiga Programmers Library:
T-Make, C-Leamer, Tool Paks I and II $49. each

Special low price for Amiga developers
CALL TOLL FREE In California

800/228-8910 800/824-8175

Review

WW****

LlO*1

**\

(JflflJ

Resource for Amiga and Macintosh software

Post Office Box 2566 • Monterey, CA 93942

$97A Corral tU Tierrj - Sjtinjs, CA 93908

Amigx is i iradtmirk of Commodore Irucimtionil

Micimoih is i iridfmiifc hfCnsrj to Apple Cera put ct. Jrw

Uoti Review. Mindttbric Software and AmigiVE'irr ate iradrmaiki of MtfldWork EflMpfiin. In*

lion Bcvie* *nd MindWcrfc Swfrware in dftrfaiMi of MindWc-rk Enitipriir*. Inc.

E Copyrtjthi 1081 MindWork Enierpriji

Reader Service #7

List of Advertisers

Reader Service

nee

Reader Service

Activision Inc., 89

Aegis, 87

Arktronics, 34

Borland Int'l, 25

Broderbund Software

Chang Labs, 61

Cherry Lane, 73

Commodore AMIGA

CIV, 35,

39, 59

*•

CW Communications,

94,

Electronic Arts, 6, 7

Every ware Inc., 31

Icon Review, 95

Image Set, 84

Innovative Technologies, 75

Island Graphics GUI

Lattice Inc., 24

Lisp Co., 93

Manx Software, 79

Metacomco, 80

Mindscape, 5

Software Group, 41

Tardis Inc., 12, 13

Tecmar Inc. CII, 1

The 64 Store, 84

Coming Next Issue

White-Collar Amiga The Amiga is ideally suited

for lhe office, and this article explores some of the ways in
which the Amiga can be used in the business environment

Telecommunications — An introduce

ion to

telecommunications for Amiga users, with a special focus on
the offii e.

Behind the Scenes at Commodore-
Amiga A look at the company, the people and the ideas

that went into making the Amiga computer what U is today.

What is MIDI? An in-depth discussion of the MIDI

interface, explaining what MIDI technology is and how it will
be used on the Amiga. What does MIDI mean to people in
the music business, and what will il mean to people in other
professions?

PIUS Other features, columns, etuestions and answers and

a few surprises that will make AmigaWbrld worth every penny.

Hors d'oeuvres

Unique applications, tips
and stuff

You may be using your Amiga at work, you may be using
it at home, or you may be using it in the back seat of your
car, but in some way or other, you are going to be using
your Amiga in a slightly different way than anyone else. You
are going to be running across little things that will help you
to do something faster or easier or more elegantly.

AmigaWorld would like to share those shortcuts, ideas,
unique applications, programming tips, things to avoid, things
to try, etc., with everyone, and we'll reward you for your
efforts with a colorful, appetizing, official AmigaWorld T-shirt.
(Just remember to tell us your size.)

Send it in, no matter how outrageous, clever, obvious,
humorous, subtle, stupid, awesome or bizarre. We will read
anything, but we won't return it, so keep a copy for yourself.
In cases of duplication, T-shirts are awarded on a first come,
first serve basis.

So, put on your thinking berets and rush those sugges-
tions to:

Hors d'oeuvres
AmigaWorld editorial
80 Pine St.
Peterborough, NH 03458

96 frrmirre 1 98?

Reader Service

This card valid until November 30, 1985.

□ Mr.

C] Mrs. Name.

.Tide.

□ Ms. Address.
Citv

. State .

.Zip.

Telephone ( ) -

A. Do you own an Amiga computer?
ni.V« D2.No

B. Do vou mieiKl to purchase one?

□ |, Y« n 2. No G 3. Maybe

C- Whai microcomputers do you currently own?

□ I.CunimiHiurr CM. IBM
D 2, Radio Shirt Q 5. Aurt

□ 3 Apple

U. What primary application are you unrig your microcomputer for?

□ I. Word Protesting C 5. Comoninicaliani

□ 2. Home Application! D & Develop Application!

□ 3. Graphics □ 7. Develop Program!

□ 4. Miiui- G 8. Database Management

□ 6. Other (Please Specify) _
D 7. None

D 9, Education

U 10. Buiinws

C 1 1 . Lmeruimnem

□ 12. Other (Please Specify).

K. What topics would you like to see covered in future issue* or AmigaWorld? (Plcalc check all thai apply.)
D I. Graphics D 6- Product Reviews Oil. Dau&uei

D 2. Operating System D 7- Programming Languages Q 1 2. Industry Profiles and Scwi

O i. Bw&Wfl Applications D &■ Programming Technique* D 1 3- Other (Please Specify)

Z -i. Telecommunication* O <J. Music and Sound

G h. Educational Applications C 10. Word Processing

CIRCLE NUMBERS 1 ( )R MORE INFORMATION

6 II

7 12 17 22

8 13 18 23

9 14 19 84

III IS

101 106 111 Ilfi 121

11)2 1117 112 117 152

11)3 108 113 118 123

11)1 109 111 119 121

ll),"i llll 115 121) 125

2111 206 211 216 221
1(12 207 212 217 222
203 208 213 218 223
2IH 209 214 219 224
209 211) 215 22» 225

:iil MS 311 316 321

MS 3117 312 317 322
SOS MS 313 3 1H 323
3114 309 .114 319 324

305 310 sir. 320 32.1

4111 400 411 416 421
1(12 107 412 41" 122
411:1 Ins 413 418 423
401 409 414 419 424
4109 490 415 420 42".

26 31 SO II 40

27 32 37 42 47
2S 33 38 43 48
29 34 39 44 49
50 35 411 45 50

120 131 131". 141 146

127 132 137 142 147

128 133 138 143 148

129 134 139 144 149

130 135 140 145 ISO

226 231 236 21 1 246

227 232 2.17 2 12 217

228 233 238 243 218

229 234 239 244 219
23M 235 21" 245 150

32li 331 336 341 346

327 332 337 342 347

328 333 338 343 348

329 334 339 344 349
331) 335 340 345 350

426 431 436 441 446

427 432 437 I 12 147

428 433 438 443 448

429 434 439 444 449

430 435 410 445 150

51 56 61 (56 71

52 57 62 67 72

53 58 63 68 73

54 59 64 69 74

55 60 65 70 75

151 156 161 166 171

152 157 162 167 172

153 158 163 168 173

154 159 164 169 174

155 I Ml 165 170 175

251 256 261 266 271

252 257 262 267 272

253 258 263 268 273

254 259 264 269 274

255 2611 26". 270 275

I.M 356 161 366 171

352 357 362 31.7 372

353 35H 363 3158 373

354 359 364 369 374

355 360 365 371) 375

451 456 461 466 471

452 457 162 467 472

453 458 463 468 473

454 459 464 469 474

455 4641 465 470 475

76 81 86 91 96

77 82 87 92 97

78 33 88 93 98

79 84 89 94 99

80 85 90 95 100

176 161 186 191 196

177 182 187 192 197

178 183 188 193 198

179 184 189 194 199

180 185 190 195 300

27ft 281 286 291 296

277 182 287 292 397

278 283 288 293 298

279 284 289 294 299

280 285 290 295 300

376 381 386 391 396

377 382 387 392 397

378 383 388 393 398

379 384 389 394 399

380 385 3911 395 4110

476 481 486 491 496

477 482 487 492 497

478 483 488 493 498

479 484 489 494 499

480 485 491) 495 500

K Which of the IbUowtBg types of software do you plan 16. purchase for your Amiga?

□ 1, Education D 5. Home Management 0 9. Entertainment

□ 2 Word Processing □ 6. Business D 10. Other (Please Specify).
D 3. Utilities □ 7. Stock Market Analysis

D 4- Database O 8 Tax Preparation

G, What is your age?
□ I. Under 18
D 2. 18-24

H. What is your education leve
Q I. Grade School
0 % High SelitK.I

□ 3. 35-34
D 4. 35- 49

□ 3 Attended College
C 4. Graduated College

1. What is .flu. annual household income?
O 1. Less than 115.000 □ 4. $35-»29.999

D 2. 115-J 1 9.999 n 5. 130-J34.999

Q 3. J20-J24.999 D 6. t35-M9.999

J. What is sous {.ccupaljon?

□ 1. Engineer/Scientist

□ 2. Middle Management
D 3. Professional

H 4 Top Management
D 5 Technician
i Retired

□ 5- 50-64
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A Do you own an Amiga computer?

C I. Ye* D I. No

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□ l.Vei D2.Na DS. Maybe

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□ 1. Commodore D 4. IBM
U 2. Radio Stuck D 5. Atari

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tl.Wh.il primary application .
Q J. WoTd Pti n:eii.ii rg
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• AmigaWorld. . . where expert authors will
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It's the lowest subscription offer you'll
ever find for AmigaWorld. . . the new
computer magazine for users of the newest
Commodore computer.

• AmigaWorld. . .the only Amiga-specific
magazine on the market. It's as fresh and
dazzling as the computer itself!

• AmigaWorld. . . where expert authors will
lead you through the exciting and
revolutionary features of the Amiga!

• AmigaWorld. . . helping you discover and
utilize a whole new world of computer
graphics and sounds!

• AmigaWorld. . .because creative
computing was never so exciting and
easy!

Get 1 Year (Six Issues)

Of AmigaWorld At The Special

Introductory Rate Of $14.97

That's 25% Off The Basic

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The CW Communications Guarantee

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AFEASTFQRTHEEYES
IN16.8MLUONFbWRS.

ISLAND GRAPHICS

)ervices

graphics software they came to Island Graphics

product demos they came to Island Graphics

same. For all your computer graphics

Corp. When Commodore needed Amiga in-si

Creative. And for launch pizzazz they did the

needs — call Island, Creative.

JlMrt^

■'

Softwart and dirid Jii/ilrt/ separations

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